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Insanity In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

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What makes anyone mad? “Edgar Allen Poe once said, ‘Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.’” In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Edgar Allen Poe uses a “Southern Gothic” style of writing to publish in 1843. The craft that Poe has put into this story is mot noticeable, in terms of the voice, creating a voice that’s inside of a mind that is diseased. The narrator is destroying his mind by saying he is not mad or instant by planning a murder. Even though individuals can respond differently to signs of insanity, being extremely foolish or mental illness towards the actions without worrying about the consequences. Throughout the story, we clearly believe that the unnamed narrator repeatedly paranoid, insists he is sane, physically and mentally illness, his actions, and motivations. The narrator feels that a disease is making him feel better, but in reality a disease makes us feel worse like cancer. The narrator speaks directly to us, and he states: "True! —nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad” (Poe 884). He points out a direct point and tells the readers upfront in …show more content…

Towards the end of the story, the narrator feels really guilty because of the death of the old man. During his last words after kill the old man, he screamed: "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!” (Poe 888). Now he calls the policemen villains, and that’s pretty ironic, because he’s the villain, right? The policemen have not done anything, but he thinks that they’re making fun of him. So he has this impression, and he always acts on his impressions, and unfortunately they’re wrong. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is not only the heartbeat that alerts the officers, it makes him reveal his crime of murder. As the table has been turn to the readers with the unexpected guilt and the dramatic close of the narrator's

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