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 still refused to believe in his madness “Ha! Would a madman been so wise as this”. The main character truly and faithfully believes that he is too clever, too cautious, too driven with his ideas to be mad and yet he still admits that he murdered the old man for the look of the old mans eye. “For it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye”. On-going, the main character tries to persuade the reader that he wasn’t mad and was perhaps a cautious and adept man, he believe so because he thinks that the madmen cannot be so thoughtful and wise as he was when he was hiding the old mans body “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs. Then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye --not even his --could have detected any thing wrong”. One might argue that perhaps the main character is definitely failing to convince the readers of not being mad. The mad man says that he is too cautious and clever to be mad, but then he describes things that only madman would have guts to do. In the eyes of a reader the main character in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ as mad as a human being can get!

Moving on, The Theme of madness in the short story the ‘ The Black Cat’ is presented differently compared to‘ The Tell-Tale Heart’.
The ‘Black Cat’ Tells us about a man going mad because of his issues, possibly some paranormal activities and the things that have tortured him, terrified him, and possibly completely destroyed him psychologically since the beginning of the story. First of all this essay is going to tell you about the main characters drinking issues. Since the beginning of the story we learn from narrator/the main character that he was a married guy and an acute animal admirer. Him and his wife had “bird, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat”. Narrator said that he began to abuse his wife and their animals after his drinking problem go out of control and one might argue that Pluto, the black cat suffered much “One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” When the narrator wakes up in the morning remembering the crime that he was guilty of, he again resorted to alcohol to take his sorrows away “the crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.” Indeed the man mistreated Pluto greatly but it doesn’t get better when later on in the story the man kills the cat “One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; --hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; --hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense”. The narrator trail to madness became more visible since this point in the story. The same day the narrator has committed the crime his house went up in flames “On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire”. Presumably all his other animals were burned in the house, which perhaps pushed the main character even closer to madness. Also as the narrator says that he lost everything he liked/loved with the house “ My entire wealth was swallowed up”. Soon the author meets the second cat alike Pluto, missing an eye but strangely enough has an image of ‘gallows’ on his chest, reader isn’t sure weather this is a real cat or a ghost haunting the man for his deeds, but Narrator took the cat with him to his wife. Narrator’s wife really likes the cat, but yet again narrator grows angry at the cat. “My aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to increase”. Narrator then for the second time decided to kill the cat after much thinking “Uplifting an axe, and forgetting, in my wrath, the childish dread which had hit her to stayed my hand, I aimed a blow at the animal which, of course, would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain”. Evidently narrator now killed a human being more than that his wife with or without him meaning to do that. One might argue that perhaps this was the last straw and after this narrator became a madman “This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith, and with entire deliberation, to the task of concealing the body”. Narrator decided to hide the body in the cellar wall “I determined to wall it up in the cellar --as the monks of the middle ages are recorded to have walled up their victims”
It is possible to argue that the man evidently turned into a madman, he tortured Pluto and killed him. Afterwards he tried to kill the second cat and ended up killing his wife he then walled her to cover-up the crime scene. Also the events, which happened with the man, have probably impacted his psychological health! Ironically enough everything began with such a minor thing compared to the following events, the drinking problem.

In conclusion, this essay will tell you about the differences and similarities of madness in both stories. Madman in ‘The Tell-Tale heart’ was clearly mad because he killed an old man because of his appearance. The main character in the ‘Black Cat’ became mad because of the events that happened to him (eg. Killing of his wife, Loosing nearly everything after his house burned down, torcher of the animal and two attempts to carry out the murder of the cat). However there is a similarity between the main character from the ‘Black cat’ and the main character from the ’Tell-Tale Heart’, They have both murdered a human being because of their madness.
This essay has clearly compared the madness within two short stories ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and the ‘Black Cat” by Edgar Allan-Poe.