English Comp II: Edgar Allen Poe: The Tell Tale Heart

Edgar Allen Poe: literary genius; The Tell Tale Heart is a great example of this. In The Tell Tale Heart, we see one man's (the narrator's) struggle with his sanity. The story begins with the narrator telling the reader that he is dreadfully nervous, and because of that, he could hear all sounds in heaven, earth, and hell. This is a continuing example throughout the story of the narrator's attempts to twist obvious signs of insanity into signs of sanity. After this, the narrator develops a plan to kill the old man because of the old man's eye, something by which the narrator is troubled. After a week of spying on the old man during the night, the narrator acts on his plan to kill the old man, which he does, and proceeds to bury the dismembered corpse under the boards of the house in which the old man lived. The old man yelled once, which attracted cops to the scene. The cops questioned the narrator and appear deceived by the narrator's actions. At the end of the story, the completely slips into madness, and admits to killing the old man after "hearing" the beating of the old man's heart. This is a definite must read for everybody.