Every reader can relate to the enjoyment of short stories. Other people see them as lessons, entertainment to the imagination, as well as stories inherit and to pass down. Some stories have a light-hearted theme or even a theme of love and happiness but, most readers would consider the most interesting of stories to have a theme of morality; a theme that challenges human morals and consciousness. Edgar Allan Poe 's The Tell-Tale Heart wonderfully explores that the spiraling downfall of sanity and the consumption of fear can cause a loosen grip on reality. A display of the narrator 's constant paranoia give insight to insanity as well as a reflection of Poe 's fear of death and the eerie setting the tale takes place.
To begin with, a majority …show more content…
The setting of darkness within the house, the narrator 's description of the timing and lightning gives the audience a feel of eeriness together with an insight on the narrator 's mindset. The way that Poe makes the narrator describes the setting has a bit of a cocky tone for example, as they are planning to murder the old man with the vulturous eye, the narrator then states "And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it --oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out--" Readers sees the narrator explaining how 'gentle ' they are despite that they 're about to commit a devious act. Which as readers should keep in mind that Poe portrays the narrator to be untrustworthy "Poe 's paranoid schizophrenic employs, within a classical arrangement, in order to win the skeptical audience to his point of view." (Zimmerman). As repeatedly stated earlier, they are insane despite their own denial of madness leading up to after the dismemberment of the victim, being the old man. However, it is believed that they are still somewhat confident of their actions and reasons, Zimmerman also states that "The bragging narrator, however, believes that he, as a man of superior powers (note his delusions of grandeur--another sign of schizophrenia), not only can plan and carry out the perfect crime, and conceal the evidence, but can also convince his prosecutors that his actions were entirely reasonable." This gives even more evidence to not trust the narrator at all despite the one telling us the story of The Tell-Tale Heart giving the theme it 's 'loosen grip of reality '
To begin with, a majority …show more content…
The setting of darkness within the house, the narrator 's description of the timing and lightning gives the audience a feel of eeriness together with an insight on the narrator 's mindset. The way that Poe makes the narrator describes the setting has a bit of a cocky tone for example, as they are planning to murder the old man with the vulturous eye, the narrator then states "And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it --oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out--" Readers sees the narrator explaining how 'gentle ' they are despite that they 're about to commit a devious act. Which as readers should keep in mind that Poe portrays the narrator to be untrustworthy "Poe 's paranoid schizophrenic employs, within a classical arrangement, in order to win the skeptical audience to his point of view." (Zimmerman). As repeatedly stated earlier, they are insane despite their own denial of madness leading up to after the dismemberment of the victim, being the old man. However, it is believed that they are still somewhat confident of their actions and reasons, Zimmerman also states that "The bragging narrator, however, believes that he, as a man of superior powers (note his delusions of grandeur--another sign of schizophrenia), not only can plan and carry out the perfect crime, and conceal the evidence, but can also convince his prosecutors that his actions were entirely reasonable." This gives even more evidence to not trust the narrator at all despite the one telling us the story of The Tell-Tale Heart giving the theme it 's 'loosen grip of reality '