Human Nature In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

In my opinion, the base of human nature is to find the limit of what is acceptable socialy and moraly. When this line in the sand of what is acceptable is known, people generally do one of four things. They will agree with it and accept the limit as it stands, disagree with it and push the limit of what is acceptable to challenge the validity of what is currently acceptable, be curious and test the line to see where it truly lies, or understand the limit and think of a way to crossing the line without punishment. The power of human nature to destroy stems from the last of these, but not everything in this group is this way. If this is a passing thought, then it isn’t necessarily destructive. However, if you obsess about this idea of crossing a line that you

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amantialdo” are two good examples of this concept of human nature. This obsession can be direct as in, an obsession with the thought of crossing the line without punishment directly. One of the best examples m of this can be found in Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” In this story, the narrator, which the story is about, is a somewhat bright, patient, observant, and schizophrenic. The reader can come to the conclution that the narrator is schizophrenic from Poe’s 1843 version of “The Tell-Tale Heart” as first printed in the Jannuary 1843 The Pioneer, “…why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them. Above all else was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heavens and … I heard many things in hell.” (691) Schizophrenic people have hallucinations that tend to involve all the senses, particularly hearing, and can be commonly referred to as a disease. Through this you can logically come to the conclusion that the narrator is schizophrenic. In the story the narrator gets