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Tell Tale Heart Narcissism Essay

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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 …show more content…
The narrator spends a good deal of the story trying to convince the reader of his own sanity.If not for the narrator’s constant thoughts, worries, and reference to himself, some might not see him for the madman he his.One might note the constant reference to his stealth and diligence skillful, this exenterates his narcissistic tendencies further. With the pompous attitude the narrator carries he elevates hisnarcissism to a socially unacceptable level. The constant attitude held throughout this story of how clever and diligent the narrator is does not convince me in the slightest of how he is no madman.This narcissism could have lead the narrator to believe he is above the repercussions of his

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