Poe

After reading the selection of works assigned it was very evident that the underlying theme of Poe's short stories were of the human mind and psychosis. I have experienced talking to and learning from people with mental illnesses in my mental health course in nursing school and I remember very clearly how the senses can be heightened in individuals with schizophrenia and paranoia. These individuals may make out seemingly innocuous objects to be dangerous or threatening. In the "Tell-Tale Heart, " Poe creates a situation in which the narrator commits a murder, however as reader I am amazed that he admits to "loving the old man. " The narration is centered around the eye of the victim and how its appearance was vulture like, a pale blue with clear film. Somehow as a reader, the narrator is able to justify his murder making it seem that he did a good thing by ridding his victim of the "evil eye." In many ways his language depicts how the eye was its own entity. When it appeared closed, his passion to kill it was subdued. Ultimately, his paranoia gets the better of him. The act of his murder does not appease his mental illness like he believed it would. It is outstanding how creating so much focus on the victims eye that vexed the narrator, Poe could transform a little considered feature into a motive for murder. Towards the end of the story, the eye becomes a nuisance and it is the beating heart of his victim that he imagines to sound from the floor boards. Without creating errie settings as he does in his other short films, Poe manages to still frighten his audience in this tale of mental psychosis.