The Tell Tale Heart Rhetorical Analysis

In Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" we question the sanity of the narrator almost immediately, but we cannot prove either way whether or not he is insane. I have read a lot of Poe's work although not all of it. His mysterious style of writing greatly appeals to me. Poe has an uncanny talent for exposing our common nightmares and the hysteria lurking beneath our carefully structured lives. I believe, for the most part, that this is done through his use of setting and his narrative style. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the setting was used to portray a dark and gloomy picture of an old house lit only with lantern light with a possible madman lurking inside. I think this was

The narrator makes it clear that it was the old man?s eye and not the old man himself that drove him to murder. He says ?I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult,?(Poe 721) which shows that he obviously cared for the man, but this also tells us that the narrator is definitely mentally ill, since no sane person could kill someone he loves, especially over an eye!

Many murder investigations lead in killers pleading over their innocence to the crime they’ve committed. However "A Tell-Tale Heart", does not follow the same stereotypical scenario. The usual story of the innocent killer getting caught takes a quick turn when the narrator tells all that he is guilt. All the while he is still claiming that he is still sane and that he was completely aware of his actions. Poe spins the entire narration into a dark, eery place when the read is unsure of their role in the story. Poe uses ethos to explain how he lures people into continuously reading his stories, Logos to show exactly how he does and uses Pathos to demonstrate how nonsensical the crime was.

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.

old man or his eye. It may be his phobia of the dark side, and

This excerpt was used to form sympathy also known as pathos.The author did this to pull and emotional feel towards this situation.By describing how she looked and how they are wondering how her sister would take it when she sees her,actually makes you think how much this kid went through.No girl would want to have stitches going down the middle of their head with a bald spot,and how she had to get fed with a feeding tube makes you feel like you should be more appreciated about life cause what she had to go through is just such an emotional thing.

“True! --nervous-- very, very dreadfully nervous…” Does fear lead people to do irrational things, even sufficient to commit a crime? Every year, about 18.2% of the American population suffer from mental illness which is caused by fear according to www.newsweek.com. Fear causes anxiety which is leads to mental illness. Fear can change the aura of others and may cause mental illness. Edgar Allan Poe commences the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” with the narrator’s fear towards the old man’s “vulture” eye. The old man’s blind eye petrifies the narrator because it symbolizes a vulture’s eye, it symbolizes as an vulture’s eye because a vulture would stare down its prey with it’s eyes. The old man never wronged the narrator in any way, but the old man’s “vulture eye,” is enough reason to haunt him and that leads to him to murder the old man out of fear when haunted by the idea. In the “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe uses dramatic irony, and the narrator’s point of view to convey the abstract theme of perverseness, which leads to his fear, paranoia and symbolism.

To begin with, Poe is the speaker in the short story, he tells the story as if he is proud. For instance, the speaker states,” But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded - - with what caution - - with what foresight - - with what dissimulation I went to work.” (Poe 1) A

The author purpose of telling this story is not about murder but more like convince about his sanity. The narrator start his story by saying he is super nervous but how do they know that he’s mad. Edgar Allan Poe is saying that how do we know he’s mad if we don’t know a person’s mind or feeling. So the purpose of the authors point is to convince us that the narrator has a disorder and act normal when he’s around the old man. Next, act in strange way when the old man is not looking. Like for example he examplains in the story “The tell-tale heart” “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually”. This quote not just explains his feeling about the old man eye but his anger and madness to kill him. According to Witherington Paul hi states in his source The Accomplice in The Tell-Tale Heart explains that” The verdict of madness, however come less from the story itself than from our commonly held assumptions that all obsessive murders are mad and that their madness is easily recognizable.” This quotes to me means that madness is easy to identify by observing a person behaver or his way of thinking. At last, I do think he may have had an illness that made him want to kill the old man.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” he is not guilty and should be put in a mental hospital. He killed the old man over his eye, and most murderers don’t kill over an eye only insane people do that. If he goes to prison he’ll do his time and get out, but if he goes to the mental asylum he can get the help he needs. He says “True!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad.” He doesn’t think he is mad; but the things he does in this story make us believe otherwise. Here are some overall things that lead the reader to believe he is mad.

In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the author combines vivid symbolism with subtle irony. Although the story runs only four pages, within those few pages many examples of symbolism and irony abound. In short, the symbolism and irony lead to an enormously improved story as compared to a story with the same plot but with these two elements missing.

Madness and obsession are the major themes and driving forces for the events of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Madness is defined by the narrator as a dulling of one's senses, self-control, and ability to reason. By this interpretation, the narrator is convinced that he isn’t mad, and tries to convince the reader of this too; however, over the course of the story, it becomes clear that he’s quite insane. As the narrator relates his tale, the true definition of the narrator’s madness is revealed as his unhealthy obsession with the old man’s eye.

In the story “ The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, is about a unidentified narrator who kills an old man because he is disturbed by the old mans blue eye. The narrator is not mentally stable, he cant control his emotions and actions and is insane. The definition of sane from the dictionary is “the ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner; sound mental health” (google). The narrator is not only insane for killing the old man’s vulture eye, he chops up the body in pieces and tries to hide his crime, and he has a disease that makes him hear things.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator explains how he is not mad, how cautious he is in planning a murder. A person can argue however with the narrator of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, which he is indeed mad. The anxiety the narrator experiences through out the story makes him mad, it is also the guilt that brought on more anxiety to the narrator at the end of the story. The narrator constantly speaks of how he is not mad; he constantly as the reader why would they think he is mad. “True! –nervous-very, very, dreadfully nervous. I had been and still am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Poe 884). The narrator does not believe that he is a mad man, much less have any mental issues. In “Overview: ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’” the

     In Edgar Allan Poe’s short-story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the storyteller tries to convince the reader that he is not mad. At the very beginning of the story, he asks, "...why will you say I am mad?" When the storyteller tells his story, it's obvious why. He attempts to tell his story in a calm manner, but occasionally jumps into a frenzied rant. Poe's story demonstrates an inner conflict; the state of madness and emotional break-down that the subconscious can inflict upon one's self.