ipl-logo

Edgar Allan Poe's Insanity

1374 Words6 Pages

Kerri Hoban Professor Sapakie ENH 241 10 January 2017 A Brief Glimpse into the Mind of a Psychotic Killer “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?” (PG 498). Edgar Allan Poe was a genius when it came to writing horror stories. He was able to embody the character and make them life like by throwing them into strange, but realistic situations. In order to be an amazing writer your audience should be able to picture what is happening as they are reading the story and while you are reading “The Tell-Tale Heart,” you are able to do just that. Poe uses outstanding metaphors that grant us entry into the depths of our imagination as he tells this thrilling story. Poe also makes it clear …show more content…

The reason for the main characters insanity is not because of the older mans behavior, no for the old man was sweet and kind to him, his reason for his horrid like thoughts are because of the older mans eye. The main character states, “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold;…,”(PG 498) so this shows us that it is true, that the hate for the old man only stems from the disgust the main character feels for the eye. This is not a reason for a man, unless he was deemed insane, to kill another man; but that is just what the main character does, he sheds blood only because he dislikes the eye. As the reader goes deeper into the story they are able to notice just how psychotic the main character is. He begins to stalk the older man every night, peeking into the room checking to see when it would be the right time to strike. He is unable to do so until he actually sees the “vulture” eye at night. The main character refuses to hurt the older man during the day because he does not want him to know that it is he whom is ending the older mans life. So every night he waits for that perfect opportunity and finally on the eighth night the main character got his wish. “The old man’s hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once-only once.” (PG 500), it …show more content…

But like it was brought up before the main character was fine right before, made it easy to lie to the officer’s face. He seemed normal, inviting, and carefree, when really his mind was a jumble, his hands still felt tingly from a recent kill and he had a thrill of taunting the police officers. It goes to show that anyone can fool anyone, looks aren’t always what we perceive them to be and maybe that is another lesson Poe was trying to show

Show More
Related

Who Is Calvin Smith Guilty Due To Reason Of Insanity

1082 Words | 5 Pages

To start off, Mr. Smith has been distinguishing abnormal sounds, these sounds are something normally people do not hear. First, a quote from my client, “Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven

Read More

Unit 1 Process Based Essay

423 Words | 2 Pages

he had the eye of a vulture-a pale blue with film over it. ”The narrator kills the man because his eye was vulture, which means the anticipation of the

Read More

Comparing Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart And Masque Of Red Death

844 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator was so consumed with the man's eye that he killed him just to get rid of the man's judgment. Though there were some repercussions with his immoral choices,he cannot take the terrible things

Read More

The Tell-Tale Heart: Criminally Insane

534 Words | 3 Pages

The narrator eventually was brought to the point of killing the old man overt the vulture eye. To argue with this statement, one could say that the vulture eye scared the narrator to murder. As anyone could say, people do crazy things out of fear. To add onto the

Read More

How Does Edgar Allan Poe Create Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

301 Words | 2 Pages

He would watch him for seven days and on the eighth day. He would make his attack on the old man. In the story it's says “And every night,about midnight,i turned the latch of his door and opened it- oh,so gently!” Another technique Edgar Allan Poe use is repeating words,phrases,and characters action.

Read More

Rhetorical Techniques In The Tell Tale Heart

434 Words | 2 Pages

The narrator believes himself to be very intelligent and clever when he goes into the old man’s room at midnight. Poe’s word choice of “caution” and “how wisely” represents the man’s view of his own sanity. Yet the act he performs and the reasoning behind his murderous intention convinces the reader that the narrator has lost his sanity. He plots and is driven to kill a man after claiming, “ I loved the old man.

Read More

The Tell Tale Heart Suspense Essay

674 Words | 3 Pages

This is also shown on page 173 and it states, “ I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in the bed, crying out-“Who’s there?”. This creates suspense because, the reader knows that the narrator has already came into the old man’s room for seven days before this. Although, each one of those nights the man was asleep so the eye was closed, but now he’s and his eye is open and the narrator would only kill him if his vulture eye was open. This then causes the reader to feel anxious and many other emotions that suspense would give you.

Read More

Edgar Allan Poe's Obsession Of Horror

592 Words | 3 Pages

Human nature portrays light and dark; however, in Poe’s stories the dark side surfaces. According to Robert L. Carringer in his book Poe’s Tales: The Circumscription of Space, Poe’s protagonist’s show numerous forms of downfall like deteriorating or taint (18). His protagonists can never improve because they cannot observe their own failures of understanding, but only maintaining their obsessive madness. Thus represents the clinical regard of mental exhilaration in forms of terror, which stimulates the idea of death (18).

Read More

How Does Poe Create Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

678 Words | 3 Pages

–here, here! –it is the beating of his hideous heart!" (Poe 7) This event added suspense because the story ended with the reader being unaware of what happened afterwards. There was no way to know how the cops reacted to finding this out or what the repercussions were.

Read More

A Literary Analysis Of The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

560 Words | 3 Pages

The Style of Poe Analysis In “The Tell-tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, the demented, arrogant and dark tones reflect the man’s guilt and insanity that eventually leds him to admit to the crime he committed. Poe’s diction heightens the arrogant tones which is seen as the man plans the murder and carries it out in a careful, organized way. He goes “boldly” into the chamber, “cunningly” sticks his head in the doorway and feels “the extent of his own power”. Poe’s use of diction shows how cocky the man actually is.

Read More

How Does Poe's Use Of Mental Illness

419 Words | 2 Pages

The narrator attempted to cover his insanity and show that he is sane with the intention to not to get suspected by the old man. The old man with the blue eye is innocent and unconscious of what the narrator is doing. In fact, nothing the narrator tells the readers about the old man fits the common definition of insanity. However, it fits the narrator 's definition perfectly as he claims “Madmen know nothing”(Poe 303). Feeling confident the narrator shows off to the readers about how flawless his plan was, his insanity is

Read More

The Tell Tale Heart The Narrator's Insanity Analysis

945 Words | 4 Pages

His problems may have caused him to become a killer and lose feeling for what is right and what is wrong. Also, when the killer was waiting to make his move, he heard the heart beat of the old man, and that sound repeated itself in his brain and jacked him up to kill. The narrator tried to convince the reader that he was not a mad man over and over again. After the murder he tries again to sell us his sanity: “And now have I [narrator] not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses” (Poe 305). He truly believes, with all his heart, that chopping up another human being heightened his senses and made him a better person.

Read More

How Does Poe Create Fear In The Tell Tale Heart

1334 Words | 6 Pages

As some may know, not being able to see what is heard in the night may lead to an over exaggeration what may be causing it. Thus, causing suspense and a connection between them and the story, as many fear the unknown. Next, the descriptions used to describe the old man’s eye were extremely unsettling. The eye was said to “represent that of a vulture, a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever I fell upon it my blood ran cold” (Poe 303).

Read More

Edgar Allan Poe's Tales Of The Criminal Insanity Analysis

1395 Words | 6 Pages

He tells that he visits the old man’s house every night and observes the old man sleeping. On the eighth night, the main

Read More

A Madman In Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

821 Words | 4 Pages

No sane person would think of doing such a thing, they would just avoid seeing the old man. Instead, the narrator chooses to kill the old man which does not make sense to the average, but to him, this is the only way to relieve himself of the eye. As the narrator craziness increases throughout the story, one can see how the eye of the old

Read More

More about Edgar Allan Poe's Insanity

Related Topics

Open Document