Since the beginning of 5000 BCE, doctors have attempted to treat the mentally ill. As we know, doctors did not treat the mentally ill like normal patients; they were tortured and experimented on. Edgar Allan Poe, writer of the gothic genre wrote The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado. These short stories are narrated by unnamed characters that seem extremely unreliable and unstable. These protagonists are madmen who were able to reason but act in immoral ways. They represented in such ways so that readers could get a sense of abnormality and madness.
Poe was born in a century, in which scientists had greater curiosity and begun to explore science and technology. He took advantage of this genre that rose to popularity. This theory …show more content…
Although their logics are flawed, both storytellers are able to justify their motives behind the murder. Both narrators ' true identity are eventually uncovered by their insanity. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator begins to reveal that he could hear things from heaven and in the earth. This is proof that something is wrong and that he is not normal. The narrator then continues to tell his story and states that he never knew how the idea of murdering someone came into his mind. He also says ' 'I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. ' ' (1). Then he declares that it was wasn 't the gold that motivated him to kill the old man but the narrator thought it was the old man 's blue eye, which simulated of a vulture 's eye. We can see that at first, the narrator couldn 't find a logic as to why he wanted the old man dead. Then he says that he thinks it was his blue eyes. As readers, we do not understand why the narrator wants to murder the old man if this latter didn 't harm or insult …show more content…
The idea of the mentally ill 's craziness that narrates the story gives the story a sense of uniqueness and horror. The reason why Poe chose to narrate his tales through people who suffered from moral insanity is because he may himself have suffered from a mental illness. His sister was insane. Because mental illnesses could be transferred genetically, Poe may also have been insane. Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatric teacher stated that insanity and genius are closely associated and that after looking at Poe 's suicidal notes, she insinuates that Poe may have been bipolar. She also claims that ' 'mania and creativity ' ' are intertwined; studies have proven that the mentally ill could give synonyms much faster than normal. She even asserts that mental diseases have ' 'an ability to experience a profound depth and variety of emotions ' ' (Jamison, 1997). It is difficult to write short stories that are horrifying and insane at the same time when we don 't think the same way as the characters that we are creating. Poe was limited to the mentally ill 's knowledge so unless he was mentally unstable, he could not have written such detailed and insane literary
Poe was born in a century, in which scientists had greater curiosity and begun to explore science and technology. He took advantage of this genre that rose to popularity. This theory …show more content…
Although their logics are flawed, both storytellers are able to justify their motives behind the murder. Both narrators ' true identity are eventually uncovered by their insanity. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator begins to reveal that he could hear things from heaven and in the earth. This is proof that something is wrong and that he is not normal. The narrator then continues to tell his story and states that he never knew how the idea of murdering someone came into his mind. He also says ' 'I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. ' ' (1). Then he declares that it was wasn 't the gold that motivated him to kill the old man but the narrator thought it was the old man 's blue eye, which simulated of a vulture 's eye. We can see that at first, the narrator couldn 't find a logic as to why he wanted the old man dead. Then he says that he thinks it was his blue eyes. As readers, we do not understand why the narrator wants to murder the old man if this latter didn 't harm or insult …show more content…
The idea of the mentally ill 's craziness that narrates the story gives the story a sense of uniqueness and horror. The reason why Poe chose to narrate his tales through people who suffered from moral insanity is because he may himself have suffered from a mental illness. His sister was insane. Because mental illnesses could be transferred genetically, Poe may also have been insane. Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatric teacher stated that insanity and genius are closely associated and that after looking at Poe 's suicidal notes, she insinuates that Poe may have been bipolar. She also claims that ' 'mania and creativity ' ' are intertwined; studies have proven that the mentally ill could give synonyms much faster than normal. She even asserts that mental diseases have ' 'an ability to experience a profound depth and variety of emotions ' ' (Jamison, 1997). It is difficult to write short stories that are horrifying and insane at the same time when we don 't think the same way as the characters that we are creating. Poe was limited to the mentally ill 's knowledge so unless he was mentally unstable, he could not have written such detailed and insane literary