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The Theme Of Insanity In Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

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“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. For example “It was open-wide,wide open-and I grew furious as I gazed upon it(Poe pg.204).” In addition, when the man was scared and being silent the silence of the house excited the narrator. “And now at the dread hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that …show more content…

“First of all I dismembered the corpse(Poe pg.206).” Another example is “I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings/plank. When he dismembered the corpse he did it in the tub so no blood stains would be found. The following examples demonstrate that “There was nothing to wash out- no stain of any kind- no blood spot whatever...A tub Had caught all-- ha! ha!(Poe pg.206).” As a result of these quotes the narrator is obviously insane because he dismembered a body to put under the floor, and did it in the tub so no blood stains would be

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