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The Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe Essay

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Have you ever done something and wasn’t sure why you did it? Or have you ever tried to convince yourself and others that you weren’t in the wrong for doing something bad? Well, the narrator in the story "The Tell-Tale Heart" does. Edgar Allan Poe is known to write stories that are of Dark Romanticism. Dark romanticism is a literary genre that showcases gothic stories that portray torture, insanity, murder, and revenge. The story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is no different. Edgar Allan Poe does a great job with making the readers wonder throughout this short story. This allegory makes reader’s questions the narrator motives. Wondering, why he wants to kill the old man? What’s taking him so long to kill the old man? What happens if the old man never opens his ‘Evil Eye?’ Will he get away with murder? And Lastly, Is the narrator really insane? Though this is a short story, Poe shows why “The Tell-Tale Heart” meets the criteria for a good story. The theme, plot, story structure, characters, setting and style are all self-evident.
The setting of the story takes place in both the old man’s house as well as the unnamed narrator mind. From the beginning, the narrator attempts to prove to his readers that he is sane and that his actions are justifiable. He opens by telling the readers that if he was mad, then he would not be able to tell the story. “I heard all things in the heaven and on the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily

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