To What Extent Is Mr Poe Sane Or Insane

Edgar Allen Poe's narrators are unreliable such as in the stories, ¨A Tell-Tale Heart¨ and ¨The Black Cat¨ because the narrators are alcoholics and have mental disabilities. A unreliable narrator is someone who can not be trusted to tell a story in the correct way because there is something wrong with them that makes them incapable of telling a story. For example, in the stories listed above the narrators are either always intoxicated or they have mental disabilities which make them illegible to explain a story. They can alter or change the story to fit their perspective and they could forget a part or even be making it up. Since they are unreliable you can not trust what they say. In all of Poe's work the narrators are unreliable and there are many ways to prove it.

The tone of the narrative is rather mysterious which conveys an energetic and odd mood. “The Tell-Tale Heart” talks about a villain who is very disturbed by the abhorrent eye of an old man. The villain is so bothered by the atrocious eye that he convinces himself into killing the innocent old man although he delays the murder day after day because he is eager to find the most ideal time to commit the murder. Although after a seven-day wait, the villain decides to kill the old man on the eight night, and he hides the corpse of the elder under a series of floorboards in a very clever manner. Soon after, the police arrived at the house that the murder was committed in because the neighbors of the old man complained that they heard a noise coming

There are many pieces of evidence that support Poe mostly likely dies of rabies. For one Michael Benitez states in his letter that rabies can incubate in a human for up to a year. This proved why Poe did not have a bite at the time if it indeed did happen about a year ago. Also in Poe’s biography it says Poe was semi-conscious stuck in a stupor. This also

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.

To begin with, as Poe’s death is mainly argued to be rabies or alcohol intoxication, he could not have died of alcohol because of the symptoms presented. Symptoms of intoxication include drowsiness, vomiting, breathing difficulties and even unconsciousness, but not hallucinating and seeing

The alcoholism theory cannot be true because the curator at the Poe museum said that Poe couldn’t touch alcoholism at his older age or he would get very sick. In all, I believe that Poe’s death was caused by rabies because Poe’s symptoms were of rabies when he died, two doctors, Dr. Pollin and Dr. Benedetto, tried disproving his theory but could only do it with false information, and another well known doctor, Dr. Benitez backs up his theory that Poe died of rabies with scientific support that can’t be refuted. At the end of the day though, none of us really know how Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart takes place in an old house in England, where the narrator and an “old man” live together. The narrator sets the mood for the story immediately with the use of words like “nervous,” “dreadfully,” “mad,” and “haunted.” “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.”

The narrator of “The Tell Tale Heart” is unreliable because he exaggerates many of the “sane” actions he performed. The narrator boasts to the audience how, “[he]

Death, sadness, and craziness are attributes that are not looked too highly upon in society. As one starts to delve into Edgar Allan Poe’s life, the sadness he dealt with is found within the pages of his texts; something sad and dark always hangs in the background, making it difficult to read some of his works. In terms of what people deal with on a daily basis, the mental health issue in the United States has come to the forefront again because we are becoming more attuned to the problems people face in a “civilized” society. In the old days, we would lock those with major mental issues up in state mental health institutions; however, as we have moved forward and tried to save money as a government, the state mental health hospitals have been shut down, and we, as a nation, must find a new way to

You’re having a serene conversation with one of your so called “friends” when you spontaneously insult them as a joke, but you don't realize that you infuriate your friend in the process and cause them to vow revenge on you with the only justice being death because they were mentally unstable. This is exactly what happened in Edgar Allen Poes’ short story called “The cask of Amontillado,” it is a story about Two men, Montresor and Fortunado, Montresor is a man who vows to get retribution on Fortunado, a man who merely Insulted his family name. As you can see Montresor is clearly insane and two other traits you could describe him with would be him being astute and extremely determined. In conclusion, there are three main traits that

The Tell Tale Heart' is a story about a man who killed an old man just

The point of view each story is told from is a key factor to the unfolding of the events. Had they been told by an outside party rather than first hand from the men who committed the crimes, the depth of their insanity may not have been revealed. Recounted with a harsh callousness, Montresor never pauses or hesitates in his retelling. He speaks with an unnerving smoothness as if he were speaking of something far more innocuous than murder. Just the same, he would allow for no distraction from his plan. His cool manner lends itself to an eerie glimpse of his personality. No real regret is ascertainable, save for the very end when the Montresor tells us that his. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, however, confesses his crime with an edgy nervousness. His story is choppy and disruptive. His madness has a stronger sense of urgency. His remorse for the loss of the old man can be

The narrator in The Tell- Tale Heart claims to have “acute senses”causing him to pay close attention to things, including the “evil” eye of the man he lived with. He compared this frightening eye to that of a vulture. The whole story takes place in just eight nights, ending with the

One of the theme’s more prevalent themes that present it’s self in the Tell-Tale Heart the theme of is insane verses sane. This theme is one of the central themes in the story. You can see this in the first sentence of the story in which the person says “True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am but why will you say that I am mad” (Poe, 331). The more the man tries to convince the people he is retelling the story that he is sane the more it shows how very much insane he actually is. When he tells the story of the old man that he murdered he tells it calmly and remorseless. He states in his retelling that he did not hate the old man or that he wanted the old man’s wealth when he murdered him. He says the reason he murdered the old man is that his one eye which was pale with a film over it resembled an eye of a vulture. (Poe, 331) Then he says “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you

The plot is the sequence of events. It is how the story is organized. The plot in “The Tell-Tale Heart” qualifies this story to the horror genre. In the beginning, the narrator is shown in his frustration toward people claiming that he is mad. The narrator frantically begins to provide evidence of why he is not mad and reveals the details of the murder. He describes his detestation toward the old man’s vulture-like eye. Later on, the narrator gives a perfect and detailed description of his preparations and the act of murdering the old man. Every night for 8 nights, he would go to the old man’s room and watch him. Then, when he was filled with confidence, the narrator murder the old man and hid the body perfectly. In the end, the guilt of murdering the old man haunts him up to the point that he