Insanity In Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

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The Tell Tale Heart One prominent example of the importance of insanity and its use as character motivation can be found in “The Tell Tale Heart.” This story, beginning with the famous lines, “True-nervous- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (“Heart” 354) details the attempts of the narrator to rationally explain the murder he had committed against his own employer. A body servant to a rich, kind man, the narrator has every reason to feel benevolent and caring towards him. However, instead of these normal emotions, the servant feels an irrational desire to kill his benefactor. Why though, would this servant want to kill someone for whom he felt no animosity towards? While he tries to pass…show more content…
He is incredibly methodical in both killing the old man and of disposing of the body. His obsession with his employer causes him to watch the old man’s sleeping form for eight nights, hoping to get a glimpse of the “evil eye.” Finally, after he suffocates the old man he meticulously disposes of the body: dismembering the corpse in a tub, catching every last drop of blood that spills from the body, and hiding it under the floorboards of the dead man’s bedroom. This continuing senseless behavior and the degree of precision with which the narrator performs it continues to point to the narrator’s insanity as a driving force, causing him to commit murder (“Heart”…show more content…
Enraged beyond reason because of a careless insult made to his family by Fortunato, the narrator plots to kill the famous wine taster (“Amontillado” 542). Luring his enemy into the tombs of his ancestors, doing double duty as wine cellars, Montresor tells his enemy that he has procured a valuable barrel of Amontillado sherry and that he wants Fortunato to taste it. Unfortunately for Fortunato, there is no Amontillado hidden deep beneath the ground. Instead, Montresor chains him up to the wall of the catacombs and buries him alive (“Amontillado”
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