What is a crime? According to Oxford, crime is an action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law. There are many theories to why people commit crimes. Issues like insanity, alcoholism, and revenge. In the “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the crime was that the narrator killed the old man. The motive of the crime was that the narrator was agitated from the old man’s eye. This can be clearly seen when the narrator states “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it... “it haunted me day and night” (691). The narrator displays many signs of schizophrenia, one of which is referential delusions, which is when a person thinks you are doing something purposely directed at them. For example when the narrator is talking to the policemen thinking “they [know]!- they suspected!- they know!- they were making a mockery of the horror!”(695). In actuality, the policemen had no clue of the murder but the narrator’s delusions made him feel guilty thus making the narrator succumb to his feelings and confessing to the murder.
In “The Black Cat”, the crime committed are hanging pluto and murdering his wife, he claims that it happened because of alcoholism for
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Montresor mentions how Fortunato has hurt him when he admits “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge “ (714). Driven by pride and mania, Montresor kills fortunato with no actual evidential reason. Montresor let’s his actions by only focusing on all the bad fortunato has done to him which leads to the homicide. For example, at the end of the story when Montresor chains Fortunato and makes him scream to let be let out: montresor shows no humanity and ignores him, leaving him to suffocate. Montresor kills him in a way that is harsh and almost like torturing, showing his
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
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 my opinion, Montresor is a very clever man. He not only seek revenge, but he also was able to get this man boozed up and murder him. Montresor continuously asked Fortunato if he wanted to have a glass of wine and his reply was always “yes.” He was an intelligent man and knew how to get Fortunato to say yes. “At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the
In the story The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, The author puts a lot of emphasis on the heart. But what can we infer about the heart? In the story Poe’s character claims to the audience that he was very nervous about the situation but was not insane. He claimed to have a ‘disease’ that made his hearing extra sensitive. Every night the narrator suspiciously stalks this old man who has this mysterious blue eye with a film over it. The narrator soon feels entrapped by this eye and decides to kill the old man to be set free.
The readers can pick up on Montresor’s crazy and vengeful, yet cunning, character from the feelings Montresor expresses on revenge. He is clever as he executes his plan to annihilate Fortunato. Montresor treats revenge very seriously. Montresor says when he plans to get revenge he has to follow through, it is never just a threat. He feels so strongly towards revenge and so insecure that when he says something he feels he has to do it; otherwise, others will think he just issues empty threats. Although he does not want to get caught, he says the victim needs to know who is getting the revenge. It should not be small it should be planned well. “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” (87). Throughout the whole time leading up to Fortunato's immolation, Montresor says he must make sure Fortunato does not doubt his goodness. Montresor deceives Fortunato by smiling at him and continuing to act the same, all friendly like nothing happened. Montresor takes revenge so seriously, that
1.Why do you think Poe has set his story at night time, in the night?
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
In “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor hides the fact that Fortunato has caused him a thousand injuries.. Furthermore, Montresor said, “I vowed revenge.” That is exactly what he did. It's certain that Fortunato has no idea of Montresor's anger, because he is believing him more and more. With this in mind, he sets the trap for Fortunato’s death.
Montresor may not seem like the type of guy to commit murder, but as the story goes on we see his true self. Revengeful, ironically speaking, guilty, all characteristics that make this story end up the way that it does. Crossing Montresor in the wrong way is exactly why Fortunato ended up as a revenge
A common argument against his trustworthiness is that there are always two sides to the truth, and he only lets the reader experience his side. Nonetheless, Montresor had a motive to pursue the demise of Fortunato. the reason for this circumstance comes from the quote stated “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could”. This demonstrates that he willingly tried to contain his feelings of pain and sorrow. Others may believe this to be a fact and that murder is unacceptable.
All throughout Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” the reader follows along as the narrator explains the eight days where he plotted against the old man. During this explanation, the readers forms an opinion on if the narrator is a calculated killer or mentally insane. It is understandable why some people might think that the narrator is a calculated killer because of the planning that the narrator mentions. However, there are more scenes where the narrator can be interpreted as being mentally insane. Therefore, the narrator is better described as mentally insane because he can “hear” the heartbeat of the old man and he acted upon impulse when he killed the old man.
“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.
To begin, Montresor does not explain what Fortunato said that offended him and caused him to take such extreme measures of revenge. Montresor said with a calm malice “But then I learned that he had laughed at my proud name, Montresor, the name of an old and honored family. I promised myself I would make him pay for this - that I would have revenge.”(Poe 68). Montresor may feel a need for revenge but the man wants to eliminate, Fortunato has only insulted his name.
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.
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.