The Black Cat Mentality

When most people think of Edgar Allan Poe’s work, they think of his affinity for writing about death. Upon further examination of Poe’s works, one notices many more aspects of writing than just the theme of death. Poe is drawn to write about the mentality deranged. Throughout many of his works, Poe explores illness of the human mind. The narrator of Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” starts the short story in a state of mental distress that escalates to the point of hysteria that can only be due to his mental deterioration. In Poe’s short story, the narrator begins by trying to convince the reader that he is mentally sound. He says, “How, then, am I mad? Harken! and observe how healthily--how calmly I can tell you the whole story,” (Poe 502). This is the first clue that the narrator is not sane. As the story reaches its climax, the narrator …show more content…
The narrator recounts how his warm disposition slowly transforms into a disposition of hatred. His disconnect from his actions allows him to blame his act of hanging Pluto on human nature, “It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself—to offer violence to its own nature—to do wrong for the wrong’s sake only—that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute,” (Poe 537). When he kills his wife, he makes no mention of remorse. His unexplainable anger towards his once loved pets and his emotional disassociation from his crime of murder are clear indicators of his mental instability.
It is clear when examining Poe’s work that he was fascinated with the concept of mental illness. His works are filled with paranoia, extreme emotional shifts, and untrustworthy narrators. While Poe is known for his element of death, he should also be known for his portrayal of the deranged