Use Of Paranoia In Prose In The Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe

Paranoia in Prose “TRUE! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been, and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, like many of his works, is a dark story. Through the first person narrator, Poe uses techniques such as irony and style to pull off a believable sense of paranoia. It is not clear on the exact setting of the story. All we know is the narrator is giving his account of the events that transpired leading to his confession of murder. The story covers approximately eight days of the narrator watching and waiting and plotting the murder, with the most important action happening each night around midnight. We do not know much about the room where the old man lied the night he was murdered

He claims his sanity by stating his nervousness and oversensitivity and offers his calmness as proof. Yet he thinks the reader believes him to be mad. From the imagery the narrator uses, the reader can easily assume that the man is mad. Phrases such as “the disease has sharpened my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them” (Poe 29), and “Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?” contribute to the imagery of a

In the Bible, there is a verse in Matthew that states "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother 's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matt. 7:3) In many of Poe’s stories, he illustrates this biblical truth that people tend to keep their focus on other’s imperfections and mistakes, and completely ignore their own. So, even in the midst of all his logic and love, nothing is sufficient to stop him from murdering the old man. The thought of that vulture eye motivates every methodically calculated move the narrator makes. The sole reason for the old man’s murder hinges on account of one disproportionately small