Similarities Between The Tell Tale Heart And The Cask Of Amontillado

Poe's Insane Narrators “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe 45). This is a line from Edgar Allan Poe's story, The Tell Tale Heart. It is about a man who kills another man, because he does not like his eye. Poe wrote many stories about death; either someone who has died or about murder. Usually the stories that contains murder have an insane narrator as the antagonist. The Tell Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado are good example of that. The Cask of Amontillado is about a man, who kills his friend because he insults him. Even though the narrator of The Cask of Amontillado is clearly insane, the narrator of The Tell Tale Heart exhibits greater madness. Though the narrator of The Tell Tale Heart states that he killed the old man because of his eye, it seems like he makes up that reason as he is telling the story; “I loved the old man. He never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!” (Poe 45). The narrator states this in the beginning of the story, which suggests that he had not considered his reason yet. …show more content…
“How then am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story” (Poe 45). The narrator believes that by talking calmly about the murder, he proves that he is completely sane and has his thoughts under control. When encountering a sane person, it is clear in the way they act, and so they do not have to convince or prove it, it is just a fact, but by trying to prove that he is not insane, the narrator from The Tell Tale Heart proves that he is insane. The narrator may or may not be aware of the fact that he is mentally instable, but it is clear that he tries to convince the audience that he is not