THE TELL-TALE HEART

The Tell-Tale Heart



The Tell-Tale Heart

Introduction

When we try to define human nature, we must consider the balance of good and evil or light and darkness. Often these behaviors exist concurrently and maintain a balance, but at times it loses stability and the "dark side" surfaces. Have you ever wondered what it takes to push someone over the edge? In Edgar Allan Poe "The Tell-Tale Heart" the narrator has four qualities of mental instability that appear to contribute to the horrible crime - nervousness, delusions of grandeur, violence and auditory hallucinations (Quinn, 1998).

Thesis Statement

Poe in his work shows how the imagination of man can be so dramatic that strongly affects people's lives.

Discussion and Analysis

The first symptom, and perhaps the most obvious mental illness displayed by the narrator's nervousness. This nervousness is evident in the first line of the story: "True - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous he had been and am; But why say I'm loco? The narrator looks nervous because he does not want the reader to think he's crazy. It is very important to him than the reader sees what the effort has been devoted to crime. Find it interesting that the narrator feels the need to defend his sanity in the first line of the story because the reader does not yet know the details of the story. We see this nervousness again in the eighth night, as he is staring at the vulture eye "... He described the beating of the heart, and he attributes it to fear that the old man feels he is, in fact, your heart tells you "I told you I'm nervous as I am." In his nervousness, the sound of heartbeat "prompted me to uncontrollable terror." His nervousness that a neighbor can hear the sound you are encouraged to kill the man. The fact that he attributes to his own fear and nervousness to the old, once again points to mental instability (Quinn, 1998).

It places great emphasis on his wisdom in dealing with the disposal of the body, which is not associated with the brutality of the crime.

Another symptom of the instability of the narrator is the unprovoked violence perpetrated against the old. The murder of the elderly was not a rash, the unexpected murder, but instead of one that was premeditated and well thought out. The narrator tells the reader has no reason to kill the old "Object there ...