Edgar Allan Poe Insane

The central idea of the narrator’s madness is glaringly obvious throughout the whole story, from the first paragraph to the eighteenth. Poe uses repetition to show it in the first paragraph, when the narrator keeps repeating the same question of why the reader would think he is mad. “But why will you

First, Poe suggests the narrator is insane by his assertions of sanity. For example, the narrator declares because he planned the murder so expertly he could not be insane. He says, "Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen how wisely I proceeded-with what

Edgar Allan Poe was an extraordinary author whose horror and mystery stories leave an impression on readers even today. In some of Poe’s works, the narrator’s thoughts and actions make the reader question the narrator’s sanity. Two good examples are Poe’s poem “The Raven” and his short story “The Black Cat”; there is plenty of evidence to support that both of the narrators are not completely sane. In Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Black Cat,” both narrators exhibit symptoms of mental illness, including hallucinations, illogical thinking, mood swings, and substance abuse.

Syntax isn’t the only way Poe manipulates his narrators to show their own madness. The constant theme of denial of insanity further convinces the reader of the characters’ senselessness. Poe, in “The Black Cat” writes “Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad I am not – and surely do I not dream.”(H/O). Here, the narrator of “The Black Cat” states that it is possible for his actions and thought process to be interpreted as mad, still in his mind, he is not mad at all. By denying his insanity, the narrator creates a suspicion in the reader, making them question the integrity of his mind. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” is more adamant about repeating the fact that he is not insane. “…will you say that I am mad?...I have heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?” (Poe H/O) The narrator obviously worries about the fact that people may see him as a lunatic. The reader can infer that by denying his lack of sanity, and clinging to the hope that he may in fact have a sound mind; the narrator has lost all sense of reality, and cannot be trusted. Both of these stories have similar narrators in the sense that they may have once been sane, and a traumatic event has pushed them over the edge into the depths of derangement.

This mental illness causes the reader to feel sympathy for the narrator. Poe was able to connect the reader to an evil character, which is fantastic characterization. I also agree that the theme is self-destruction, as everything that goes wrong with the narrator is caused by himself. Everytime the narrator talks to the reader, he proves that he is mentally ill. “TRUE!--nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story,” (Poe). The narrator immediately states to the reader that he is not mad. However, throughout the story he clearly displays his mental illness. The narrator even says that the “disease had sharpened his senses,” and that he now can hear all things in heaven, hell, and the earth. "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!” (Poe.) The narrator hears the sound of his own heartbeat and misinterprets it as the old man's (another sign of his madness). He then admits to the crime he committed because he could not stand it. He had tricked the police,

When you think about the first detective story ever written, Edgar Allen Poe probably doesn’t come to mind. He is most known for his melancholic and gruesome tales of stories such as a guilty man’s conscience giving him the impression of hearing the man he killed heart beating through the floorboards, or even a raven symbolizing the inevitable death we will all face. Despite these well-known contributions, his writings concerning the detective field have left an indisputable mark on pieces following his time.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is a first-person narrative short story that showcases an enigmatic and veiled narrator. The storyteller makes us believe that he is in full control of his mind yet he is experiencing a disease that causes him over sensitivity of the senses. As we go through the story, we can find his fascination in proving his sanity. The narrator lives with an old man, who has a clouded, pale blue, vulture-like eye that makes him so helpless that he kills the old man. He admits that he had no interest or passion in killing the old man, whom he loved. Throughout the story, the narrator directs us towards how he ends up committing a horrifying murder and dissecting the corpse into pieces. The narrator who claims to

Poe indicates through the occurrence of the events that the narrator has descended into madness. As his guilt constantly haunts him, the narrator is unable to hide it any longer, and confesses everything to the authorities, which ruins his seemingly “perfect crime.” Here, his sanity is in question, as no man of sound mind would openly confess his evil doings to the authorities. The fact that he narrates his crime to prove that he is sane, proves that he is in fact, insane (Holland).

The narrator seems to be crazy but is still in denial of it. You can say that because he killed a man that he liked but it was just because of the eye that he had. As well as being crazy the narrator also thought everything through because when he disposed of the man he “cut off the head, arms, and legs {or the man”(poe pg 2). That shows that he made sure there was no trace of the man being killed and that he would not be found. Through out the whole story he ties to tell us that he is not crazy but as many times as he repeats it he starts to sound retorical. Expecially when he ask you “how [he could be crazy]”(poe pg 1) he just sounds like people have labled him as crazy but he is still in denial of it.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator explains how he is not mad, how cautious he is in planning a murder. A person can argue however with the narrator of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, which he is indeed mad. The anxiety the narrator experiences through out the story makes him mad, it is also the guilt that brought on more anxiety to the narrator at the end of the story. The narrator constantly speaks of how he is not mad; he constantly as the reader why would they think he is mad. “True! –nervous-very, very, dreadfully nervous. I had been and still am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Poe 884). The narrator does not believe that he is a mad man, much less have any mental issues. In “Overview: ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’” the

An inference that can be made about Edgar Allan Poe is thoughts and experiences into his writings. According to “‘A Terrible Evil’: Edgar Allan Poe Writes About His Wife's Illness and Death” By Rebecca Onion it states, “But I am constitutionally sensitive — nervous in a very unusual degree. I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” After his wife constantly having a blood vessel pop, he became insane. He took his insanity and added it to his other writings. This show what he was going through and how he felt during it because he took his thoughts of insanity and wrote about them in his other writings. Continuing on in “‘A Terrible Evil’: Edgar Allan Poe Writes About His Wife's Illness and Death” By Rebecca Onion it states, “ At the end of a year the vessel broke

Next, will be the look into the claims of reliability and insanity in the two short stories. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator assures his reliability with the first word of the story “True!” (Poe 100). He does this in order to indeed make the reader believe that whatever story is about to be told, it will be the truth. Before explaining what he did for seven nights he says “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!” (Poe 100). As aforementioned in the previous paragraph the narrator uses orderly actions and precision as a rational account of his irrational behavior. Through this and the quote he denies claims of him being insane. Another example of his sanity is his hypersensitive senses. He says, “The disease had sharpened the senses –not destroyed –not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth” (Poe 100). He claims to have very good senses that are

There are many mysteries about the life of Edgar Allan Poe. While many are just legends, our dear poets life has many different tales. There are endless stories, and little truths. While it may be hard finding the stories in the writer’s life, they are not impossible. Edgar Allan Poe’s life was anything but easy. Most of his life was spent heartbroken and alone. He was a man gifted with amazing talent but the world failed to recognize his talents until after his death. Many believe he was psychotic in some way, others argue that he was just misunderstood and heartbroken. While many of his stories may have been very dark and twisted, there is little to no scientific evidence of his mental instability. His life story, his mind and his thought process have fascinated many people for years. His psychotic tendencies are believed to be one of the most influential circumstances in his writing. Crazy or not, Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite poets and writers ever. His life story is fascinating and the way he communicates through writing is amazing.

Authorial intrusion, which is uncommon in most works of contemporary fiction, is arguably the most important literary device Poe uses to construct the narrator’s manic voice. Though the entire story is written as a confessional, the unnamed chronicler frequently interrupts his recount to attempt to convince the reader that he actually isn’t insane. After explaining his egregious crime along with the motivation; the narrator proceeds to state  “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me” (92). These erratic sentences interrupt the flow of the writing but are extremely important in developing the narrator's voice as it further  Following the quote he explains the methodical lengths he went through; lengths that only an absolute psychopath would find rational, and attempts to justify them as his own cunning intellect rather than an insatiable desire to kill. He reiterates a similar variation of this sentence multiple times throughout his recounting of the events, “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer” (95) and “have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?” (94), which again helps to reinforce this idea that the narrator is truly unaware of his own madness.

The first piece of evidence is when Poe writes, “It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! Would a madman have been so wise as this?” (Poe 3) The main idea of that quote is similar to another that is found in The Tell-Tale Heart. This is the part of the story where the narrator already murdered the old man and has dissembled the body and is hiding it. The narrator tells the audience, “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body.” ( Poe 12) He was silent and cautious to make sure he did not arouse the old man and attempted to not alert the neighbors of his devious deed. He thought wisely, and usually madmen do not think wisely. Insane people do things very recklessly and thoughtlessly when making decisions have been involved. That idea leads this essay into the next