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The Tell Tale Heart Theme Of Insanity

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Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most prolific writers of the 19th century, and many of his famous works such as The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, The Black Cat, and many more. One of the forefathers of gothic literature or dark romanticism. Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809, lived a tragic life and his works speak to it. Tell-Tale Heart is a story of irony and about how madness can quickly consume someone, but its guilt will always come back to haunt those actions. At the start of the story, the narrator addresses the reader that his actions were not driven by madness but were methodical and precise. Conflict arises when the narrator fixates his madness on the old man's eye “I think it was his eye. His eye was like the eye of …show more content…

“ I asked the policemen to come in. The cry, I said, was my own, in a dream. The old man, I said, was away; he had gone to visit a friend in the country. I took them through the whole house, telling them to search it all, to search well.” (p.67). The police are immediately called to the house which meant that his actions cause a loud commotion that even the neighbors who were probably sleeping were awoken by the screaming. The narrator is so confident with himself and his “plan” that he encourages the police to find any evidence of a misdeed. A meticulous murder plan should not involve any law enforcement. “My easy, quiet manner made the policemen believe my story. So they sat talking with me in a friendly way. But although I answered them in the same way, I soon wished that they would go. My head hurt and there was a strange sound in my ears.”(p. 67) The narrator’s patience with the policemen started to run out, and most likely the adrenaline rush that he got from murdering the old man was receding. “Louder, louder, louder! Suddenly I could bear it no longer. I pointed at the boards and cried, “Yes! Yes, I killed him. Pull up the boards and you shall see! I killed him. But why does his heart not stop beating?! Why does it not stop!?”(p. 67). It was going so well with keeping the policemen from realizing murder has taken place but madness took the form of guilt and he caves into telling what he has done. The tension in the room he felt too great and his madness took over

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For instance, even though the killer believes he has a valid reason for murdering the old man, he becomes terribly frightened that the neighbors will hear the loud beating of the man’s heart and be alarmed. As stated in the text,”... the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me-

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The noise became so loud and painful that he revealed that he murdered the man. While some may believe that the murderer is criminally insane, he clearly proves to be a merciless killer through

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“I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.... For his gold I had no desire. I think that it was his eye!" Every night for the past eight nights the narrator creeps into the old man's house and stalks the old man watching his every move.

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He thought that his crime was perfect. When the police arrived, he sat on the chair with triumph where the corpse was located underneath. He was confident with what he had done, but he was scared by the unknown

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The old man’s evil eye drove the narrator absolutely crazy. Everyone has that one thing in the world that they just cannot tolerate, it bugs them so much that it causes them to do things that they normally wouldn’t do, especially if they are mentally unstable. Obviously by the way the narrator thought “And now my anxiety seized me…. With a loud yell I opened the lantern and leaped into the room.” He couldn’t control himself and let his emotions get the best of him.

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In the end of the short story, the narrator couldn’t bear “the hypocrital smiles” nor “the beating of his hideous heart” and admitted his crime. He cannot stop the beating of the heart growing louder; his conscience is haunting him. He cannot contain the tale which the heart had to tell. It is often too late when we finally realize what damage we have done—how we ruined someone else’s life. Then we fear what we’ve brought ourselves into; we fear the consequences we’d have to face.

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here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!"(4). If the narrator were to hold out a little while longer, the police officers could have left his house and he would have no consequences. But since he is insane, he ignores the consequences and plainly tells the officers he did the crime, and shows them the physical evidence hidden within the boards of the floor. This quick confession is not caused by the police officers, but by the narrator’s mind, because of his assuming that the officers already knew he had murdered an old man.

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The demonstration of the narrator's imagination unconsciously leads his own thoughts to grow into a chaotic mess that ultimately ends in a death. By murdering, it’s his own way of finding peace. He is portrayed as being a sadist, sick man with an unnatural obsession for

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(Prepositional Phrase) Any lucid individual would not think that killing someone made him or her into a superhuman, let alone think about killing someone in the first place. Finally, the narrator’s conscious drove him mad. In the final scene of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” while the police were sitting with the killer, thoughts kept racing through his mind. Guilt finally overflowed his brain, and that forced him into confessing his responsibility in the old man’s slaughter.

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In the story, Edgar Allan Poe feels guilty for killing the man when he keeps hearing the heart. The heart beating represents all the guilt that is inside him fighting its way out. The themes of evil, ego, murder, and insanity are very dominant in the story. From the start of the story, the narrator insists on being sane. Edgar Allan Poe detailed their vicious crimes as proof of their sanity.

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The narrator is quite the character, being cold hearted and killing an innocent man. One reason that the narrator shows his insane side is the fact he is accusing the readers that they say he is “mad” for no apparent reason. The narrator begins the story with saying “but why will you say that I am mad?” (line 2).

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In the story The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, there is one central theme that connects to the setting, the character, and the plot. The theme to this story is that guilt leads to madness. This central idea connects to the setting, plot, and character because everything is told by the narrator’s perspective. This allows you to know their every decision, mistake, and consequence that happens throughout the story.

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