Tell Tale Heart Pschology

In the short story “Tell-Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allan Poe, there are two main characters- the narrator (perceived as insane) and the Old Man (perceived as innocent). The narrator is disturbed by the Old Man’s “vulture eye” and therefore murders him. After the murder, the narrator dismembers the Old Man and buries him under the floorboard. When the intrepid narrator is questioned by the police of a scream a neighbor overheard, the narrator courageously invited the officers in. During the duration of the officer’s stay, the narrator begins to hear the heart he or she has buried under the floorboard; the escalating sound of the heartbeat causes the narrator to ultimately confess to the murder of the Old Man. Poe uses various literary devices to portray the narrator’s insanity in the short story “Tell-Tale Heart.”

In today’s society sanity is when someone is crazy or normal. In “The Tell Tale Heart”, story by Edgar Allan Poe is about how the narrator has taken over someone's life for an idea that came into his head. The narrator in the story “The Tell Tale Heart” is sane because of his intelligence thoughts and actions that he is doing.

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

Throughout the short story, Montresor appears to be murderous and mentally insane. As Montresor continues to tell his story, the reader learns that Montresor is not only a murder and insane, but he is a narcissist as well. Montresor displays the characteristics for this to be true. When Montresor decided to take revenge on Fortunato, he was persistent in doing it himself for his own satisfaction. As his plan began to go along perfectly, he was very pleased with himself. In addition, the cause for Montresor’s revenge plan was because of an insult. The death of Fortunato was not justifiable by his actions. It was merely a prize for Montresor

Montresor killed Fortunato because he supposedly hurt and insulted Montresor. Even if Fortunato did insult him, Montresor should not have killed him. Some people think he should not be punished, but Montresor planned the murder, their was no reason for him to kill Fortunato, and he is sane.

In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Edgar Allan Poe illustrates how obsession can quickly turn into madness and destroy its victim and those connected to them. The narrator tries to convince us that he is in full control of his thought yet he is experiencing a condition that causes him to be over sensitive. Throughout the story we can see his obsession proving his insanity. The narrator claims that he can be a bit anxious and over emotional, he is not insane. He tries to give proof this through the calmness of his tone as he tells this tale. He then explains how although he has much love for an old man who has always treated him kind, he

Therefore, when Fortunato damages Montresor’s pride, he determines to seek revenge for his sense of reputation, so he doesn’t appear frail and inferior. Throughout the story, he has no sense of guilt, he can only think about killing Fortunato to redeem himself. Also, the wrongdoing of Fortunato was not addressed clearly and properly, which elicits doubt on the credibility of Montresor for the reader. Furthermore, Fortunato seems to be very carefree, which suggests that Fortunato is unaware of his wrongdoing and a biological mechanism such as insanity might be driving Montresor’s moral choices.

I strongly believe that The Tell-Tale Heart is the most inappropriate, violent and hypocritical book middle school students should not be reading! In the book, the narrator--or as we may think of as the killer--watches an old man--with a pale blue eye-- every night about midnight. One, night, he creaks the door open and wakes the man up! Now, the old man is scared, so the narrator stood there for a whole hour,after shining the light in his eye,he smothers the old man and dismembers his body. This is why The Tell-Tale Heart is inappropriate for my age group.

“I must not only punish but punish with impunity” (Poe, 1199). Montresor wants to retaliate Fortunato for a crime contrary to him that is unknown. Montresor caught revenge on Fortunato the night of the carnival. Fortunato was dazed and wearing a clown costume. It would seem problematical to murder someone in the middle of a happy event. The way Montresor dolls with Fortunato is maleficent. We are unaware of his victim’s actions, if we did know the actions of his victims we could be understanding. Targeting where Montresor develops Fortunato makes him villainous, along with how he persuades Fortunato to go into the wine cellar, and where he decides to commit the murder.

Montresor gives us very few detail about what Fortunato has done prior to the plot of the story. All we know is that Fortunato has done something to insult Montresor, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. (165) Montresor is saying that Fortunato has hurt him copious times and Montresor was kind and did nothing about them, but now Fortunato had insulted him and Montresor will not tolerate this. There is no mention of what Fortunato has done to Montresor, but it is deemed worthy of vindication on Montresor’s part. The lack of information on what Fortunato has done is misleading because it could be such a minute offense that Fortunato has no

Readers may feel sorry or compassion for Fortunato getting killed for no particular reason. He got killed from a man with mental disabilities because of an insult we didn’t get to know. Montresor got advantage of the day and the situation Fortunato was in. Also, he used Fortunato’s arrogance into consideration and killed him.

In today’s new age thinking, what transpired between Montressor and Fortunato is completely unacceptable and is punishable by law. Taking the law into your own hands is frowned upon. However, the setting of this story is in 17th century Italy where it was quite easier to get away with murder. More so Montressor states “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could” (N108). Montresor from the beginning lets us know that Fortunato has wrong so many times and for a while he tried to let it go but the anger and rage from whatever he did, was building up to the point where he couldn’t take it any longer. Montressor also states “at length I would be revenged”. His mind was made up and when the opportunity came along, an eye for an eye came to full fruition. Furthermore, this murder was a non- physical murder. He trapped him behind a brick wall to die and

In the short story “the Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor kills Fortunato by bringing him down to his wine cellar and chaining him to the wall. He left him there because Fortunato denigrated him in the past and he wanted revenge. Even though Fortunato insulted Montresor in the past, I still think he shouldn't have killed him. For several reasons, Montresor should not be killed by capital punishment.

Maybe it was because Fortunato disrespected Montresor. It can be argued that Montresor was very hurt or broken with what Fortunato did to him. An ego is based primarily off of one’s reality, and when one’s reality is bothered or broken, people tend to react in abnormal ways. Obviously, this broken ego or reality is what caused Montresor to make Fortunato, once a friend, into an enemy. It caused him to hate Fortunato so deeply that Montresor could murder him. Montresor’s ego also shows towards the end after bricking in Fortunato. Montresor exclaims that the revenge is complete! He says his “heart grew sick.” It can, of course, be interpreted as heavy and cruel irony indicating that his heart was anything, but sick. (Henninger 38) The next line then reads, “I hastened to make and end of my labor.” Montresor had been enjoying the last scene in his playet immensely.