...around them. Edgar Allan Poe is no exception to the rule. During the early years of Edgar Allan Poe, his father abandoned him, his mother, and two siblings (Marshall 42). At a young age, he witness his own mother cough up blood and die slowly due to tuberculosis (Marshall 42). He was later adopted in 1811 by a couple who did not even want him (Marshall 42). Some would say his talent was molded from the tragic events throughout his life, which lead him to write. Poe was an American poet and writer whose work still lingers in many individuals’ imaginations. He was very somber in many of his poems and when writing. Throughout his life,...
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...In 1843, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe was published, telling a tale of the madness within one’s mind, written for entertainment. Fifty-six years later, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, discussing mental deterioration, was published. Both stories use different symbolism and themes to create a climatic tale. “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman compare in a way that both characters suffer from a mental illness and the authors show this using repetition and suspense to make the reader curious throughout the story. However, they differentiate because in “The Tell Tale Heart”, the narrator from the beginning is clearly insane whereas in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator makes it less obvious and takes longer to reveal her true mental illness,. Both stories discuss madness but both narrators use different language and metaphors to show that. Although there are many similarities between the stories, one that really stand out it the fact that the main characters in both stories are mentally ill. In the “Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is isolated from the outside world because of her husband. We see her madness through her eyes. This is an example of a story told by showing, rather than telling. One has to assume that there really isn’t a woman trapped in the wall, it’s all in narrator’s mind because she’s not living in reality. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the situation is very similar. The narrator is a madman...
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...The Untold Insanity People tend to deny the unwanted truth, especially the ill. In the short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the protagonist, is faced with his biggest problem yet, himself. Within the story, he is faced with guilt, perhaps too much guilt for one to handle. The unknown narrator is seen as an insane individual through his constant paranoia, neurotic thoughts, and unstable actions. The mad man is clearly able to demonstrate his insanity with his constant paranoia towards the old man. Throughout the text, the narrator expresses his ongoing feelings of paranoia towards the evil eye. He believes the eye haunts his every waking hour, till he finally decides to rid himself from the eye once and for all, “I was never...
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...dread, and depression in a reader as successfully as Edgar Allan Poe. Born in Boston in 1809 to impoverished actors David and Elizabeth Poe (Allen), Edgar’s entire existence seems to have been destined for struggle and loss. He was orphaned by age three, losing his mother to tuberculosis and his father by desertion (Allen). He was taken in by the Allan family, but during Edgar’s year-long stint at West Point in 1830—and subsequent expulsion—his relationship with his foster father suffered irreparable damage (“Biography”). His life soon became a mélange of depression, alcoholism, unemployment, and financial hardship (“Biography”). He died in 1949 while on a trip to Baltimore, under mysterious circumstances: theories of “congestion of the brain,” alcoholism, rabies, epilepsy, and carbon monoxide poisoning continue to swarm today (“Biography”). Having lived a life of constant struggle and turmoil, it is not surprising that his works are imbued with brooding and despondency, and that the common themes in his writings revolve around derangement and death. His short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” provides a perfect example of his fixation with madness, murder, and melancholy. It is this very fascination with all things grotesque, combined with his uncanny ability to weave multiple literary elements together to create a bizarre tapestry that appeals to readers, and what makes Edgar Allan Poe such a great writer. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” an unknown narrator recounts the events leading up...
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...narrator in “The Tell Tale Heart” has felt all of these feelings. The narrator in “The Tell Tale Heart” is psychotic. He shows us his insecurity because he wants to kill the old man just because of his malformed eye. He thinks it is alright to kill the old man and because he believes he is right, he thinks killing the old man is a stable and rational thing to do. In the end, his mental illnesses drive him to his confession of this awful act. In the "Tell-Tale Heart", Edgar Allan Poe uses irony, imagery, and symbolism to describe how psychotic, frighteningly, and twisted mind this narrator really is. First, irony the narrator confesses how sane he is; he is exhibiting his insanity as he describes his actions and motives for the murder (Edgar, Poe). Secondly, irony in the story is that the narrator/murderer refers to how he loves the old man and quote, “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I kill him’’(Poe). Its irony that he loves the guy but he systematically plans to kill him. Lastly, an irony of this short story is that shortly after the narrator kills the old man and hides his heart underneath the Adams 2 floorboard, the police arrive, while talking to them he begins to hear beating, and he eventually breaks and confess to killing the man (Poe). The killer believes that he hear the old man heart beat underneath...
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...Cornelius Hughes Dr. Montgomery LibA 102 October 13, 2009 Poe’s Use of Irony in His Short Stories Gargano says that “Poe intends his readers to keep their powers of analysis and judgment ever alert;…” (178). Poe is not your average type of literary figure. He often uses personification, metaphors, and symbols in order to give hints at details that would otherwise be unknown. These type of tactics help to keep the readers on their toes, otherwise they would be subject to misinterpreting what they read. In particular, Poe was a profound user of irony in his short stories. Poe used irony to depict the errors in his characters’ ways of thinking and their actions. Stories such as “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The Masque of the Red Death” are all short stories that convey this notion. It is my intention to, based on the evidence found and presented, to prove this point. Let us first look at how Poe’s use of irony proves this point in “The Cask of Amontillado.” . The setting of the events is an “evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season” (Poe, “Cask” 426). This setting alone is symbolic for in this time during a carnival, people dressed themselves in costumes, becoming for a short time something other than their normal selves. Both Fortunato and Montresor are outfitted. Fortunato is wearing “a tight-fitted parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (426). In short, his attire was much...
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...Edgar Allan Poe 1 Edgar Allan Poe “The Life and Tragedies of Edgar Allan Poe” Jesse T. Smith Axia College of University of Phoenix Professor Lorelie Kaid October 19, 2008 E.A.P. 2 Edgar Allan Poe “The Life and Tragedies of Edgar Allan Poe” The famous writer, poet has long been criticized for his unconditional writings that made the man who he was so very famous for. Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, Died mysteriously, October 07, 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. The famous writer would go on to inspire such authors as Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, to name a few. There has been a mystery since the death of Edgar Allan Poe, of what caused his death. There have been many writing’s trying to settle this debate. Some are as follows. • Beating (1857) The United States Magazine Vol. II (1857): 268. • Epilepsy (1875) Scribner’s Monthly Vol. 10 (1875):...
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...Dr. J. Woolston English 102 15 February 2014 Catacombs and Floorboards. Edgar Allan Poe is considered one of the founding father of the Gothic Society and great horror short stories. These writings were about people on the cusp of events that were grotesque to his audience. It is a known fact that his short stories were on the dark impracticality side of the mind, with characters that were pathological killers. In “The Cast of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe portrayed exceptional acts of madness, murders, and decay. In the case of “The Cast of Amontillado,” Poe’s character Montresor seemed mentally disturbed over a thousand injuries and an insult, obsessed with revenge. (1238). This demonstrated the instability or madness of Montresor mental well being. The individual here shows he was committing insanity by letting his emotions rule and not thinking logically. “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the person starts the story stating he is not mad which makes the reader sure of his mental illness. Eight nights he visits the bedroom of the old man, on the eighth night the eye opens; he grows furious as he looks at it and kills the old man. At the end of the story, his madness manifests into the form of the old man’s heart sounds. Illustrating he was insane before and after his killing of the old man. Montresor’s murder is careful calculated, and was illustrated with the trowel. Poe wrote he pulled a trowel from under the folds of his cloak, and he had stone and...
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...Alejandro Almonte Percy Haynes English 201 September 27, 2014 “A Question of Motive in The Tell Tale Heart” Why did the man in The Tell Tale Heart kill the old man? That is the question that Poe asks you to ponder in his story yet he gives us scant clues as to the answer. The motive eludes us even as the murderer is guilted into confessing by his own mind and then goes on to thoroughly detail his gruesome deed. The murderer will be referred to as “he” although his sex is never revealed, he refers to himself as a “madman” within this first person narrative (Shen, 287). This piece is tightly written, short to read and it builds at a frantic and hurried pace and then climaxes abruptly. This leaves the reader craving more details and to wishing confirm the man’s motives. Poe’s story consists of the author’s unique ability to create grotesque inventiveness and superb plot construction (Shen, 275). Some interpret the old man as the father of the murderer and his act a release of built up tension and resentment toward him (DeBord, 1). There appears to be no familial bond in the heart of the man when describing the old man, he also lacks the rage that one would expect if the act were resentment fueled murder. Instead the old man seems to be a fond acquaintance of our murderer, because they reside within the same home it can be hypothesized that one or the other is simply a boarder in the other’s home. There is no malice, no greed and no disdain to motivate him, he even...
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...Rachel Murray B. Sumey, Instructor Comp. II, TTH 3:00 18 Feb. 2012 Insanity In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is very insane and mentally ill. He is a murderer, does not sleep much, is very paranoid, and is unable to distinguish what is real and unreal. It is clear that Poe wants to create a character who is mad. First off, the narrator kills the old man. By doing so, he is considered a murderer. The death occurs “in an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him” (44). He is obviously not in his right mind to murder someone in such a manner. The narrator even claims to enjoy the event of murdering the old man. The narrator is crazy because he does not sleep much during the night. Instead of getting a good night’s rest, he takes the time to go and watch the old man sleep: “And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it – oh, so gently!” (42). Staying up every night affects his judgement because he does this for one whole week. “. . . that every night, just at twelve, I looked upon him while he slept” (43). The reason he stays up and watches the old man is so that he can be ready for anything that can possibly go wrong during his murder plan. The character sounds like he is hysterical. In the very beginning of the short story, this is evident by his saying, “True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous. . .” (42). The protagonist states that he can hear things that...
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...Olsen WR100 Insanity in Literature 11 February 2015 “The Presence of a Motive in ‘The Cask of Amontillado’” In many countries, the highest offense one can commit is insulting the family of another, as family is a strong source of history and pride. Conflicts between families have fueled many a feud or violent campaign, and insult is never left to injury; action must be taken. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” the narrator, Montresor, does not appear explicitly insane, as many would argue, but rather to be acting on a motive against his victim, Fortunato. This premeditated intent to take revenge can be seen in Fortunato’s consistent disrespect for Montresor’s family, Montresor’s lack of guilt, which is exhibited during the act and also in the final phrase of the story, and finally through Poe’s method of singular effect. Montresor’s extreme distaste for Fortunato is immediately evident. He opens his murderous, half a century year old tale by stating, “The...
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...Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe was an American author, poet, and literary critic. Additionally, Poe is an author considered to be an anti-transcendentalist and is well known for his poem “The Raven.” Poe also wrote rather dark stories often circulating around murder, revenge, torture, and insanity. Some of Poe’s short stories include “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue.” “And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave” (Edgar Allan Poe, “The Pit and the Pendulum”). But in truth, we all have thought about death and what it will be like. Even before losing someone, death would find it’s way into my thoughts, but having lost a close friend, death is now something that often creeps into my mind. Is it peaceful, painless? Or is it terrifyingly unnumbed? Is there life after death? How can we really know unless we’re dead? We all have that sheer fact to live with of never truly knowing when or how it could happen. In some cases, it can give life a little more adrenalin. But for others, it can lead to fear. Why leave the house if you can fall on the way out? But if you never leave, would you ever become known enough to be remembered? The curiosity of death affects us however we let it. But if we allow it to rule our mind we can lose it. We’ve all thought about death, but we can only imagine what it will be like....
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...Poe’s suspenseful short story, Tell-Tale Heart, effectively portrays the killer through the use of literary tools and themes such as mortality, imagery, and point of view. The main character wants to show he is not insane, and even offers a story as proof. The narrator’s decision to kill the old man so that the eye would stop looking at him marked the initial situation. The motives of the killer aren’t understood, which makes the murder mystery difficult to understand. Was the narrator insane? Did he kill the old man in self-defense? As such, the fear of death is expressed in the text. For example, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” This excerpt illustrates the narrator’s thoughts of mortality. “Yes, he was stone, stone dead”, depicts how the narrator continued to express the old man’s death in a conspicuous/ distinct manner. Edgar Allen Poe can build so much fixated context over the old mans “vulture eye”, amplifying the use of imagery in the text. “You fancy me mad...You should have seen how wisely I proceeded.” This is ironic because the man tells himself he is normal that he is killing a man because of his eye. Another example is, “a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” The symbol in this quote was the film over the eye, how the man couldn't see as well what was going on right under his nose. Poe creates confusion using his pandemonium literature to render the imagery of the story. Whether or not the old man...
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...Edgar Allan Poe was an American Poet and short story writer who is best known for his dark and gothic writing style. Despite his stories have a mysteriously dark tone and often involving violence and death, Poe was able to write stories which keep the reader’s attention from start to finish. Great examples of this can been seen in two of his short stories: “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. At first glance they seem to have very little in common however, after reading and looking more closely, you will notice that they share some striking similarities. In this paper I will illustrate how Poe’s stories “The Tell-Tale Heat” and “The Black Cat” share striking similarities in both meaning, content and ultimately justice. As stated above, both stories share elements of murder and insanity. Both stories are also told by first person narrators who are in prison after being caught for the murders they committed. In “The Black Cat” when the narrator kills his wife and conceals her body in the wall. Similarly, in “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator kills the old man and conceals his body under the floor boards. The question is, what was Poe’s preoccupation with hiding bodies within the structure of a house? Was Poe a former carpenter/brick layer, thus making him imagine concealing the bodies in this manner? Did Poe have delusions of his own about someone hiding a body within the home? Was he himself guilty of a heinous crime and used his writing as an admission of guilt? Another...
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...Bernard Charles Ms. Winkler English 1002 A Pale Blue Eye I never thought in my wildest dreams that someone would be so anxious to dismantle an old man because of his blue eyes, especially when the old man never did any wrongdoing to anyone. Do not ever underestimate the power of darkness because you could be the next one in line? The Tell Tale Heart is a well-known demoniac story by Edgar Allan Poe, where the devil played a big role by inspiring the narrator to engage in such devilish acts. First, the devil injected the idea into the narrator’s brain and made him believe there was only one way out: to kill the old man. The narrator said,” it hunted me day and night,” but it is unclear what relationship was between the old man and the narrator. May be the old man could be a father figure, but it is unknown in the story. Moreover, the narrator became very creepy by his own insanity. The narrator stated,” he had never wronged me, and he never insulted me,” so would he destroy the old man when he had never done anything unjust to him? The power of darkness kept whispering to the narrator to continue on his long journey. The old man never paid any attention to the narrator because it seemed that there was an overwhelming amount of trust between the two. Otherwise, the old man would have felt his death was coming. The narrator’s strategy seemed to work very well with the old man because he treated the old man nicely...
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