...“The Tell-Tale Heart” is narrated by an unnamed individual about which little is revealed. The only fact that is known for certain is that the narrator lives with, and serves, an elderly man. At first he cannot speak to his motive for murder: “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.” (1127) Grasping for a motive, he says, “I think it was his eye!” and then, as if to convince himself as much as the audience, he declares, “yes, it was this!” (1127) Searching for a reason for his actions, his uncertainty is apparent and he attempts to justify the brutal murder and dismemberment of the old man, for which there is no apparent logical explanation, by blaming the “Evil Eye.” (1127)...
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...Reading Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “A Tell-Tale Heart”, you begin to notice things about the narrator. You begin to wonder, is this all in his mind, or is this all calculated down to the point. Where it’s all strategically planned and well thought out. Although there are many occurrences where you would believe that he is a calculated killer. There is more proof to show that he’s mentally insane and he’s not as calculated as you would think. It paragraph one he starts to state, “ Healthily- how calmly I can tell you the whole story”. From this quote you would believe that he’s calculated because he wouldn’t be able to be so calm about the whole situation if he was mentally insane, which is correct, but moving on down the paragraph he then states, “I heard all things in heaven and in Earth. I heard many things in hell.” If he has any assumption to believe that he can hear those things and believe that he is really hearing heaven and hell then you have to believe that he might have something wrong with how his brain works....
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...Ever heard of the story The Tell Tale Heart? It is a dark story of a man descended into madness murdering an old man. But not everyone thinks he was a mad man, some think he was just acting or that murdering the man brought him into madness. Everyone has their opinion on this matter and we will be exploring just one of them. Well truly it’s more like I am defending my opinion on this story and how I believe the man truly was with evidence from the story itself. I would have to say that the man was truly insane and completely capable of planning ahead despite of his mental state. I say he was a mad man because of his reasons for his actions, the narrator explains in the story page 1 says: “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!” (Tell-Tale-Heart) and this was enough to drive him to murder. His drive for the murder was such a simple and pathetic reason that anyone sane would have to disagree that it would be an acceptable reason....
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...The Tell Tale Heart, a literary masterpiece by Edgar Allan Poe. Esteemed by many, but narrated by a potential madman. The narrator attempts to make a case throughout the story of how his acts are deliberate and thoughtful. Although, throughout the story as the narrator insists he is mentally stable, the tone and phrasing of his words does nothing, but emphasize his ravings as those of a madman. The narrator’s arguments are based on nothing more than persistence, narcissism, and a reliance on the readers trust in a narrator’s facts to be unquestionably authentic. With every mention of the narrator’s sanity and the possibility of his mental instability he persists in dispute that he is no madman. The over emphasis of this causes the legitimacy of the narrator’s claims to appear fabricatedand even add to the counter case. In addition, at a point he is unsure of the reason for the murder: “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!” A sane man would never forget a reason to even provoke the thought of murder, let alone persuade the action. Every night he would come and watch the old man sleep for eight nights, clearly he had been thinking about it and...
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...Most people enjoy reading short stories and their rewritten versions. The main genres admired by readers today are comedy, romance, mystery, etc. The original version of the short story Tell Tale Heart has a greater impact on the reader than a rewritten version of the story. There are similarities in the mood and irony, while there are differences in the pacing and character development. To begin with, there are similarities in the mood and irony of the text. First, the mood of Poe’s text begins with a calm, stable mood. As it approaches the end of the story it becomes more and more agitated. In Smith’s version of the story, the mood begins calm like any normal day for a nosy neighbor like Elaine. As this story approaches its end the mood becomes more anxious, similar to Poe’s. Poe used words such as “ dreadfully nervous, and pale”. To describe the mood of the passage. Smith uses words like “terror-stricken and washed out”. These words help emphasize a similar indecisive mood....
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...The Tell-Tale Heart Case Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Today we will discuss the murder of an old man known as The Tell-Tale Heart Trial. The main question we are trying to answer is: Is the murderer sane or insane? This man is insane due to evidence of his actions and how they fit the legal description of insanity. To begin, one of the most significant pieces of evidence that shows his insanity is the fact that he explains the murder so calmly, with no hesitation whatsoever. Nobody that is sane should be anywhere near comfortable describing a murder. The way he proudly defined this murderous act, he indeed seemed to have had no problem with killing the man. The legal definition of insanity states that an insane...
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...“The Monkeys Paw” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” are suspense filled stories, where the characters involved make choices and must live with the consequences. “The Monkeys Paw” is the story of a man being granted three wishes that bring him something he desires, but each comes with a horrible consequence. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is about a man who takes care of an elderly man as he, the caretaker, slowly goes insane. The authors carefully crafted cause-and-effect relationships in "The Tell-Tale Heart" and “The Monkeys Paw” to increase suspense and help the readers connect to the story. The suspenseful nature of the “The Monkeys Paw” is created by the cause-and-effect relationship developed in the story. The story is about a man and his family being granted three wishes, but each had a terrible consequence. After using the first wish, he realizes the consequences are worse than he had originally thought. The author...
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...Comparing the Theme of Madness in “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” This Essay is going to compare theme of madness presented to reader in two short stories ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’ both by Edgar Allan Poe. One might argue that the theme of madness is presented quite differently in both short stories if compared to each other. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ presents us a true madman; the main character kills the old man because of the look of the old mans eye. This is highlighted by the piece, which was extracted from the story itself “I loved the old man. He had never wrong me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes it was this” Furthermore it is clearly shown that the madman liked the old man and he didn’t want old mans money. Madman committed the most atrocious of crimes because of the old mans appearance. However the main character doesn’t think he is mad and strongly believes that the old mans eye was pure evil, and this is highlighted by the quotes from “The Tell-Tale Heart”. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him”. The main character almost tries to compensate the murder by saying that he was nice to the old man before he killed him. Moreover, the main character...
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...Debra Bronstein English 1B Short Story Essay Prompt Essay Due: Monday 10/15 at the beginning of class (100 points) Please write a 4-5 page essay. All papers should be typed, double-spaced, 12-point font (Times New Roman), with one-inch margins. All papers must analyze how the rhetorical/formal/symbolic/narrative elements of the short story contribute to your understanding of the text. Please review these terms from your literary terms quiz and your class notes to remind yourself how authors deploy them in the stories. Please choose one of the following topics. Note: I ask a lot of questions within each of the topics because I want to give you many options to consider; however, this does not mean that you have to answer all the sub-questions. Use them as guides to jumpstart your thinking. 1. Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Jewett’s “A White Heron,” Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” track a particular symbol throughout the short story. Focusing on one of these stories, show how the author uses the development of the symbol in order to reflect the demise or spiritual growth of the main characters. Hint: for “The Things They Carried, you can focus on the word carry rather than on a specific individual symbol. 2. Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are both narrated by unreliable narrators who go crazy. Focusing on one of these stories, how does the author portray insanity...
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...翁良權 98121232 Introduction to English Literature, Wed 34 Professor:馬健君 Paper1: Essay for the Tell-Tale Heart(題目太籠統，不要學) Oct, 21, 2009 Essay for the Tell-Tale Heart(題目太籠統，不要學) This story is described from the murderer. He talks about the process how he killed the old man. The name of The Tell-Tale Heart gives the hint for what will happen next and the heart will do something startled. Using the name can make reader interested in knowing what the story will go. In the beginning, the murderer doesn’t think he has committed the crime. And he tries to convince reader to believe what he did is right. In the story, the author describes what the murderer feels in the whole story. His mood goes from excitement to confidence to guilt and to breaking down at length. The author uses precise sentences to describe those moods for example:“Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust head in.”,“I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph.”means the murderer at that time was really exciting;“I smiled,--for what had I to fear?”, “While I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim. ”means the murderer was confident to what he did without any mistakes; “No doubt I now grew very pale; but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice.”,“I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased.”means the murderer was guilty;“I felt that I must scream or die...
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...The True Demise of Myself Lets take a journey through the mind of a man who is torn between his “id” and “superego.” In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Alan Poe, a man cannot choose between right and wrong. Through the psychological theory I can prove how a man is torn between his “id,” “ego,” and “superego” and to proud to show his true identity of being a psychopath. The man is portrayed as the narrator and has taken on two identities one as a loving and caring man and the other is a psychopath. The “id” will take over his “ego” only to be taken over by his “superego” and eventually taken back over by his “ego.” Our journey starts with the young man, the narrator, telling us his story. The young man is a caretaker of an old man who is really old and has a diseased eye. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the young man starts out by loving the old man very deeply. He takes care of his every need, until one day “ the old man’s eye fell upon him and his blood ran cold”(Poe 2). The young man then turned to his narcissistic ways and it changed the way he felt about the old man whom “he loved so dearly” (Poe 1). In “ Explanation of: ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Alan Poe,” which was rewritten by an unknown author, it explains how the narrator is a “paranoid schizophrenic”(pg. 1). The article explains how Edgar Alan Poe was obsessed with “death, madness, and troubled human relationships” (pg. 1). The narrator is definitely a man caught between normality and psychopath. Further...
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...Name- Student name- Tutor name- Week 2 I have gone through first part of all the stories and decided to make the folio based on ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ as it sounds really interesting to me. After reading thoroughly the first part of the story, I can say that Mr. Morris, Sargeant-Major has gone through some rough and brutal phase for which he holds ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ guilty and responsible. There was some bitter fact that he hides from his friend, Mr. White though he warns him about the misfortune. As for Mr. White, I felt that he is curious to know about the truth behind ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ but at the same time somewhere down the line he has a greed of getting more by making wish to ‘The Monkey’s Paw’. Whilst Mrs. White and his son takes this issue in a humorous and light way. From the very beginning author has set the mood of the story as suspicious and mysterious which fills the mind of the reader with a surge to reveal the unknown. From the suspicious environment created, it can be predicted easily that some ghosts and haunting is coming on the way. Very cleverly author revealed that there is some misfortune related to the history of the monkey’s paw and a holy man has spelled something over the mummified paw of monkey but what is that misfortune? Also, what was happening upstairs after Mr. White wished for the first thing? These are yet unsolved questions. Reading the very first part of the story, I can say that the story is filled with thrills, unexpected...
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...Literature Creation Methods of Poe’s Gothic Tales ——Review of The Fall of the House of Usher 英81 高云君 2008012742 As one of the most famous works by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher is the a masterpiece in American gothic literature. The prose is full with of elements and details which are unsettling and macabre. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Poe’s gothic novels have always been my readings before bed since I was younga child. In my childhood, following the unnamed narrator and walking towards that old and creepy house, I was immersed in the horrible storyline and experience the fantastic feeling of nightmare. Today when I look back on this literature work, I get some deeper understanding and . Ⅰ. Hellish environment setting ：Use of double space The whole environment and different scenes in the story are so hellish that the reader feels a kind of inexplicable asphyxia. I summarize some typical elements Poe uses to build a gothic atmosphere. Day: a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn. Location: a singularly dreary tract of country. House and surrounding: upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees. The precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn. If that can be called the exterior space, then the internal...
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...The narrator of the story “The Tale-Tell Heart” did undergo some psychiatric problems of his mental health. Even though he denied it by saying he wasn’t crazy during most of the story, it was obvious he really was. His mental illness was shown through his actions towards an old man with an eye that vexed him badly. Experts would say that his state of mind is not normal, there is some illness. The person narrating the story had a lot of things that was wrong with him. In the story, he says, “The disease had sharpened my sense-not destroyed-not dulled them,” but he wanted the audience to believe that he was perfectly sane. The narrator states, “I think it was his eye! Yes it was this! He had an eye of a vulture…” The hatred towards the eye...
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...Reference. In my view, "The Tell-Tale Heart" foregrounds different stages of Ego-Evil as the narrator defines himself through the narcissistic eye, the malicious glare, and the enigmatic gaze of the other. In the story, the narrator clearly grounds himself as a powerful Master who can determine all values. As a result, he sees that he is sane, and that his disease is good. His disease has merely "sharpened [his] senses -- not destroyed -- not dulled them" (91). He remains an absolute Master who has an eye for the ultimate Truth, hence he can "calmly tell [the readers] the whole story". This episode foregrounds the way of the eye, which is always on the side of the Subject and its narcissistic fantasy. In the Lacanian context, the eye allows the self to see itself as a unified creature and as a judge, hence the eye is essentially related to the imaginary "identity-building" process. However, as the eye sees what it wants to see, "sight" or "insight" can mean bias. As noted by Ellie Ragland, the eye gives a narcissistic perspective of "unification and fusion" that does not guarantee truth, though it certainly offers a personal "principle of law or judgment" (95). In the story, the eye's bias shows itself when the narrator immediately views the old man's disease in a negative light. The old man's cataract is seen to be the "Evil Eye" (89). If we borrow Martin Buber's concept, we may as well call it the "I-Thou difference." John Cleman believes that the narrator's mental...
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