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Poe Essay

Decent Essays

Edgar Allan Poe said “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” Throughout his short stories; “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe sets up his characters to subconsciously reveal their insanity. Often using syntax clues and patterns, Poe shows the madness of the narrators of his short stories. The constant theme of denial of insanity further convinces the reader of the character’s psychosis. Characters themselves often prove they are not in touch with reality through their actions. Through syntax, denial of insanity, and character’s actions, Poe allows his narrators in “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” to reveal their own insanity. Sentence structure is used consistently by Poe in his short stories to …show more content…

Syntax isn’t the only way Poe manipulates his narrators to show their own madness. The constant theme of denial of insanity further convinces the reader of the characters’ senselessness. Poe, in “The Black Cat” writes “Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad I am not – and surely do I not dream.”(H/O). Here, the narrator of “The Black Cat” states that it is possible for his actions and thought process to be interpreted as mad, still in his mind, he is not mad at all. By denying his insanity, the narrator creates a suspicion in the reader, making them question the integrity of his mind. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” is more adamant about repeating the fact that he is not insane. “…will you say that I am mad?...I have heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?” (Poe H/O) The narrator obviously worries about the fact that people may see him as a lunatic. The reader can infer that by denying his lack of sanity, and clinging to the hope that he may in fact have a sound mind; the narrator has lost all sense of reality, and cannot be trusted. Both of these stories have similar narrators in the sense that they may have once been sane, and a traumatic event has pushed them over the edge into the depths of derangement. While the above points may be valid and prove a point, nothing really shows who someone is more than what he or she may do. The character’s

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