Hatred In The Tell Tale Heart

The main character however is the narrator. He is an angry, psychopath, madman. A quote from the text that proves character is linked to theme is, “ Throwing the links around his waist it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it” (pg. 165). In this quote, Montresor was angry at Fortunato for bullying him therefore, he chains him up in the catacombs.

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The massive characters are seared with scars. "- Khalil Gibran. In the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” written by Edgar Allen Poe, the main character, Montresor, suffers from an abnormal physcology for revenge due to his name being mocked by a man named Fortunato. Montresor is so consumed by his hatred for Fortunato that he deliberately creates a plot to murder Fortunato to seek justice for himself and his family name.

“Insanity: n. mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior” (Hill). This definition describes the narrator, a sweet yet deadly man, of “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe seamlessly. (Appositive) A few prominent characteristics demonstrate the narrator’s insanity, and those include his motives, his actions, and his thoughts. The narrator in this story has a dilemma that establishes his senselessness. He knows that he wants to kill his roommate, but he doesn’t have a real motive: “Object there was none.

The Tell-Tale Heart: Indirect Characterization In the excerpt “from The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allen Poe creates the conflicted character of an unnamed narrator through indirect characterization. Using the components of Action, what others say, and character’s internal thoughts, Poe portrays a story about insanity and reveals the conflicted and even insane thoughts and emotions going on in the character’s head. Poe uses Action as a component of indirect characterization to depict the meaning of the poem in many instances. For example, in the second paragraph when Poe describes how the narrator treated the visitors, and he writes, “ I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search - search well.

Edgar Allan Poe creates an atmosphere of fear and dread in his story “The Tell-Tale Heart” through characters and word choice. The author chose an insane character to portray a fearful plotline. Despite the distorted claims the narrator makes to convince the reader, he appears to be insane: “Above all was the sense of hearing acute, I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell” (Poe 303). By reading this quote, the reader understands that this person has mental issues.

The Tell A tale Heart is a story that has a fear factor, it is a horror story, It is made to put pressure on the reader to induce fear. It is about a butler that loves his master , but also he thinks that his eye is evil with his condition cataracts. In the short story there is a urgency for justice towards the old man when the butler kills him in bed. You also feel scared for the

In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson uses weak diction, juxtaposition, and characterization to argue that man’s evil psyche will often overpower the good in a fight for control. Stevenson uses weak diction to illustrate the increase of Evil’s power and the decrease of Good’s control overtime. The first hint of Jekyll’s loss of control is shown when he “broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing [his] cane, and carrying on… like a madman” at his meeting with Carew (Stevenson 17). Before Hyde’s bout of anger, he and Carew were speaking “in a manner of politeness”; just a few moments later, Carew was dead on the ground. The maid witnessing the murder described Hyde as a “madman”, implying that

“Insanity is the state of being seriously ill;madness.”(The Urban Dictionary) In fact, Edgar Allan Poe states this in “The Tell Tale Heart” Edgar suggests this when he writes “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees-very gradually-I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever(Poe pg.203).” There is no doubt the narrator of this story is insane. In fact, he expresses his insanity while believing he is sane.Obviously the narrator of “The Tale-Tell Heart” is crazy because he has bizarre thoughts, dismembered the old man”s body, and has a confusion of hearing heartbeats. The narrator has bizarre thoughts because he wants to kill an old man’s eye. You see, for seven nights he tried to kill the old man's eyes, but his eyes were always closed. “And this I did for seven long nights-every night just at midnight- but for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye( Poe pg.203).” Also, he says he gets furious when the light hits the man's eye.

All of the main characters in Poe’s stories are exposed to fear and handle it differently. In the texts by Edgar Allan Poe, the symbols, irony, and imagery all display how fear distorts the narrator's mind and the results of that fear. Poe uses symbolism to represent how fear can distort the mind and the results of such fear. For example, in the “Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator obsesses over the eye to show how fear can distort the mind: “It was open-wide, wide open- and I grew furious as I gazed upon it” (76). This symbol represents the old man judging the narrator, which the narrator fears.

He transmits the emotions and feelings of the perpetrator in an attempt to draw the reader into his mind. Without this symbolism, the reader would miss the profound torment of the narrator. The young man blames his dreadful actions on the eye of the old man. He is incorrigibly convinced that the old man’s eye put a hex on him, causing him to be “haunted day and night” (Poe). The old man’s eye is pale blue with a film over it, indicating some sort of eye disorder.