Mysterious Rage
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Mysterious Rage
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“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story written by Edgar Allan Poe. He writes about a man who goes mad by being disturbed by the old man’s eye. The man is driven insane over the eye and leads to the murder of the old man in cold blood. The man’s own conscience eats away at him until he finally confesses to this horrific dead. The central idea in Poe’s story is from a psychological point of view that illustrates the smallest features on one human being can drive someone crazy. It also shows how insane individuals think as if sane but cannot live with the guilty conscience without expressing their act of violence to someone before it makes them imagine things that are not even there.
The protagonist in the story is the man who takes care of or lives with the old man. The man considers himself to be smarter than the normal madman. We see this characteristic when he questions himself with “would a madman have been so wise as this?” referring to the ease at which he enters the old man’s room (1572). The man is a dynamic character that thinks he is fine in the beginning of the story but by the end just can’t handle this guilty conscience and falls apart. The characteristic is shown with the comment “I admit the deed! - tear up the planks! - here, here!” (1575).
This story is written chronologically. The structure fits the events in the story perfectly. The primary conflict is internal. The eye bothers the man, and he describes it as “that of a vulture” (1572). The man copes with his conflict by making the choice to “take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (1572). On the eighth day, with the eye open, the man enters the old man’s room with a loud yell and takes his life. This resolution to the man’s conflict reveals how one personality is another man’s downfall.
Poe’s story takes place in a house with wooden floors and hinged doors...