Comparing Poe And The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

Chills run down your spine as a breath of wind rushes past your frame. Incoherent whispering fills your ear due to the flowing wind… Edgar Allen Poe, one of America’s most prolific writers, wrote numerous horror stories that defined the genre for modern writing. Effort went into creating the style that he was known for, but was it constant from one story to the next? Despite differences in plot and length there are similarities of tone, setting, structure, narration, and character between two of his most famous stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” that allude to Poe’s true writing style.

On the 8th night in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, weird stuff happened on in the old man’s house. In the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator is a criminal who people may wonder if he is sane or insane. The narrator is sane because he says he is not insane. the narrator says he done this he hid the body where no one could find it. How could a mad man do all this?is senses have not been destroyed or dulled, he was wise during the execution, and he hid the body so no one could find it.

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

"The Tell-Tale Heart" consists of a monologue in which the murderer of an old man protests his insanity rather than his guilt: "You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded . . ." (Poe 121). By the narrator insisting so emphatically that he is

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart emphasizes the use of an ironic, unreliable narrator and how individual moral standards cause discrepancies in determining sanity. The narrator, who is not the same figure as the author, clearly states that he is aware of the crime committed and refuses that the definition of madness does not fit him. The murderer is somewhat sane in the sense that he was in control of his actions, but being “mad” or “deranged” continues to cause problems determining if he is ultimately culpable. First, a somewhat serious form of sarcasm used by the criminal actually constructs a contradicting notion about his plot.

Because of his meticulous steps, we can conclude that the narrator in not insane because he knows that he is

“True! - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Poe) In “Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe illustrates that the narrator has an acute need of the old man’s vulture eye and eventually murders the man on the eighth night. The author highlights the events of the murder and soon, the narrator confesses to the police of his guilt. As Edgar Allan Poe fabricates this short story, he enthralls the readers by giving the events specific detail. If Edgar Allan Poe were to ever continue the story where the narrator would be put on trial, he would be guilty of premeditated murder. The reason for this is because the narrator cunningly planned the murder, had a motive of killing the old man, and finally at the end of the short story, he knew from right to wrong.

     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.

The narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart uses a simple language to tell a simple story, which convinces the reader that he is indeed mad. In an ideal situation, one would expect the narrator to protest about his innocence to detach his conscience from the heinous crime. However, the narrator tries to seek empathy from the reader through his protestations that diverts the reader’s attention from the crime to start wondering about his insanity. As the monologue progress, the reader is confused whether the narrator is indeed putting up a show or he is indeed mad because he too does not seem to be totally convinced that he indeed insane. He asks, “Why will you say that I am mad?”… “Observe how healthily-how calmly I can tell you the whole story”

Poe proposes that the main character is insane by his declarations of sanity. For example, the narrator says that there is no way that he could be insane because he planned the murders so perfectly. In the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by Edgar Allen Poe, the main character states “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. 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! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week I killed him” (388). This quote shows how the narrator actually thinks that he is sane because of the acts that he partakes in during the week that he was going to kill the old man. Another example of this comes from the article, “Ego-Evil and The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by Magdalen Wing-chi Ki, where it notes “In Poe’s stories, Ego-Evil stands out because his hero’s frame of mind is utterly corrupt at its root: the villain can recognize his deviance through the other;

As a reader, one can tell how the narrator is becoming even madder as the story goes on. Throughout the story, he tries to convince himself that he is not a mad man by being neat in his own insanity: “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body” (Poe 305). The narrator attempts to mask his insanity by believing that he is cunning and witty, which would not make him insane in his own mind. The narrator keeps the reader in fear by detailing the dismemberment of the old man’s body and hiding the parts under the floorboards. Fear intensifies as the police come to investigate a shriek that was heard in the night.

Edgar Allen Poe was born on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to become one of the most famous American poets and authors in history. The subjects of his poems and stories were often morbid in nature, many of them having to do with death and murder. Unfortunately, the dark tone of his work reflected the darkness of his life, which was marked with notable instances of tragedy, such as the untimely death of his wife, Virginia Clemm. The tragedy in his life eventually got the best of him, as he succumbed to alcoholism later in his life and died in the streets of Baltimore in 1849 due to brain hemorrhaging caused by the overuse of alcohol. Written by Poe in 1843, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story which contains many of the quintessential elements of Poe’s body of work. The story centers on an unnamed narrator attempting to explain and justify to the reader his murder of an unnamed man and the events that led to his confession.

Madmen know nothing.’’, the narrator definitely has something to prove. The protagonist of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story ‘’The Tell-Tale Heart’’ is an up battle with himself and the spectators as he tries to prove his sanity. Poe poses the reader with suspense and curiosity. In the mid 1800’s, his distinct style of writing set him apart. He uses imagery and creates a story of dreadful murder through the use of diction with short sentences, he mimics the old man’s heart beat. Which develop the perfect atmosphere of the plot. Furthermore, Poe hides the instability of the narrator through the use of rhetorical questions and repetition. The narrator tries to convince the audience that he is perfectly harmless. Paradoxically, though the narrator has a few lines proving he’s not mad, the narrator claims that he’s completely remorseless, but then again confesses with a reminder of his guiltiness. Finally, he proves how irrational, instable and insane he

Authorial intrusion, which is uncommon in most works of contemporary fiction, is arguably the most important literary device Poe uses to construct the narrator’s manic voice. Though the entire story is written as a confessional, the unnamed chronicler frequently interrupts his recount to attempt to convince the reader that he actually isn’t insane. After explaining his egregious crime along with the motivation; the narrator proceeds to state  “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me” (92). These erratic sentences interrupt the flow of the writing but are extremely important in developing the narrator's voice as it further  Following the quote he explains the methodical lengths he went through; lengths that only an absolute psychopath would find rational, and attempts to justify them as his own cunning intellect rather than an insatiable desire to kill. He reiterates a similar variation of this sentence multiple times throughout his recounting of the events, “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer” (95) and “have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?” (94), which again helps to reinforce this idea that the narrator is truly unaware of his own madness.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1839, can be compared to Poe’s later work “The Tell-Tale Heart”, published in 1843. In both gothic stories, there are physical deformities, mental illness, and despicable crimes. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Roderick Usher, the main character, and one of the last of the Usher blood line, had a twin sister, Madeline, who suffered from a mysterious illness. After believing she had died, Roderick learned that was not the case --Madeline was still alive-- yet he buried her anyway. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, an unnamed narrator lived with an old man, whom he was plotting to murder because he wanted to help rid the world of the old man’s evil eye. In both Poe’s stories death is a very prominent theme (Davis).