Theme Of Obsession In The Tell Tale Heart

In plotting the death of the old man, the narrator would spy on him for seven nights in a row. Strangely, the narrator would only look in upon the old man at exactly twelve midnight, no sooner or later, only exactly. But on the eight night, when he entered the old man 's room, he is described to have, “Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers.” (Poe “Tell-Tale Heart” 3) The word choices of the narrator is not a mistake. This power is shown when the narrator began to enter the old man 's room. While entering the old man heard him and called to him.

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe uses diction and irony to create a suspenseful and sinister mood to further keep his readers in a state of suspense. Throughout the story, it remains a mystery as to why the narrator has such hatred toward Fortunato. In the beginning of the story, Poe uses diction that appeals to the audience by including words relating to acts of revenge. “You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged.” And then he says, “I must not only punish but punish with impunity” (pg 866).

The story opens off with the narrator trying to assure his sanity then proceeding to tell the tale of his crime, this shows a man deranged and hunted with a guilty conscience of his murderous act. The narrator 's sole reason for such murder is purely in his disturbed mind, as he develops an obsession with the old man 's eye and the plot unfolds from here where his insanity augments with the events of the story. Due to Poe’s illustrative language, various evidence can be presented to confirm the state of mind of the narrator, including, his obsession with the old man’s eye, his precision in committing the impeccable crime and finally the sound of the man’s beating heart solely inside his head. Perhaps it all started with the narrator’s obsession with the man’s “vulture eye” since he believes the eye of being evil, proving the insanity he is gravely trying to deny “I think it was

Another emotion that jealousy can spark is lust. If you see somebody that has more money you want to be like them, you work hard to get to that point in life. In, The Great Gatsby, Tom wanted a different woman because she had better looks than his wife. So he cheated on her with another married woman. Jealousy pushed them to cheating on their spouse, which is what leads to the decay of marriage and a whole lot of

This mental issue is illustrated in this quote. “And I did this for seven long nights—every night just at midnight—but I found that the eye was always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work: for it was not the old man that vexed me, but his Evil Eye” (1). This quote shows the reader that the “madman” has an inner conflict, which is his perceived imperfection in the old man's eye. He needs everything to be exactly perfect, and that’s why he did the same thing every night for seven nights. Once he began to go through with his crime, he cannot commit.

Edgar Allan Poe made sure the reader knew more than the secondary character in his short story to build suspense. For the entire week before he murdered the old man, the main character crept into his bedroom every night, and observed the man while he slept. “I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in the bed… He was still sitting up in the bed, listening;--just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall.” From the beginning, the audience knew the man would be murdered, and the suspense built from this knowledge. Since the old man was not aware of the devious plan of his housemate, the readers felt inclined to warn

In all three texts the authors use characterisation to create a sinister and menacing mood. The characterisations of the characters includes insanity, pursued protagonist and obsession. For example in The Tell-tale heart the protagonist has an obsession with the old man 's eye that drives him to insanity "I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever" this is the first sign of insanity from the protagonist. He believes that if he does not kill the old man something bad will happen to him. In this text this is the part that creates a sinister and menacing mood because of the felling of danger the protagonist suffers.

Both of the short stories are about revenge, murder and madness. The narrators of both the Tell-Tale Heart and the Cask of Amontillado have very different motives for committing the murder each of them commits. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator is insane and his motive behind killing the old man is that he cannot stand the sight of the old man’s “vulture eye”. He is tempted to close the eye forever, and so he does this by murdering him. Whereas, in The Cask of Amontillado, the reason behind the murder is revenge, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” Additionally, Montressor’s jealousy is another reason because of which he murders Fortunato.

In Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado” revenge take over Montresor’s life. Montresor is nice on the outside, but is planning revenge on the inside. “My heart grew sick, it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so.” This is after he kills Fortunato he is on his way out. He is really getting depressed from killing him for an insult. “But when he ventured insult, I vowed revenge.” This is the beginning of the story when he is telling us what he is going to do.

Edgar Allan Poe develops the character of the murderer in "The Tell Tale Heart" through what he says and what readers can infer about him. Poe used what the murderer said to develop the man’s character trait of being meticulous. He shows this when the murder sneaks on the old man at night during the night and describes his experience, " It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed" (page 3). This supports the character 's trait of being meticulous because it shows the murderer being precautious and taking his time as he creepily sneaks on the old man. Another trait that was developed by what the murderer said was the murderer’s insecurity.