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The Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

Decent Essays
“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story written by Edgar Allan Poe of an unnamed narrator who attempts to convince the audience of his sanity. He believes someone who is “insane” would not be able to plan and execute the detailed murder that he committed. The victim is an old man with a “filmy vulture-eye.” The narrator felt he had no choice but to kill the old man to not look at this horrific eye anymore. It is carefully calculated and the body is dismembered and stashed beneath the floorboards. The narrator’s guilt of what he had done becomes apparent when he begins hallucinating and hears the beating of the old man’s heart beneath the floorboards. Poe was an American author, editor, poet and literary critic who was considered a significant part of the American Romantic Movement. As a child, his father left the family and mother passed away a year later, leaving him as an orphaned child. He was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia, and lived with them into young adulthood. Tension began to build between John Allan and Edgar over debts and the cost of secondary education. Poe stopped attending the University of Virginia after a semester due to lack of funds. He enlisted in the army in 1827 and this is where his publishing career began, starting with an anonymous collection of poems. “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this. He had the
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