Exploring Obsession and Fear in Poe's Tell-Tale Heart

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"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe deals with an individual whose own mental state causes a rift in a relationship. Most of Poe 's writings can be explained through the same themes. He also relates himself to some of these stories. In this story, the narrator has some sort of mental condition. While fighting this condition the narrator fears the eye of the old man. While fear does not drive the narrator to kill the old man it does drive him to kill the eye. The killer describes the scene in great detail as does Poe in a lot of his stories. In the end, the narrator 's heart tells the tale of a struggling individual whom only wanted to rid the world of an evil eye. The story deals with reoccurring themes in Poe 's writings such as the obsessions, uncontrollable urges, and death. The obsessions of the narrator start off simply because of the eye. "One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it" (Poe, …show more content…

The themes always fall under the same category, but the idea of the story changes every time. The uncontrollable urges, obsessions, and death started with Poe and ended with his stories. These stories were not simply ways to explain death and struggle, but a way for Poe to explain his life. "The Tell-Tale Heart," tells a story of an individual overwhelmed by fear and hatred of this eye. Acting on these emotions eventually led to an evil heart. His heart now had to pay for his wrong doing. This resembles Poe in his constant struggle with alcoholism, and insanity due to his wife 's illness. Under the influence and struggling with his own urges, the only way for Poe to fulfill his wrong doings would be telling the tale of his heart. Poe allowed his heart to tell the stories. This led to stories about death, revenge, urges, struggle and other aspects Poe had wished he could have changed. "The Tell-Tale Heart" was not just a story, but a small look at what it was like to struggle as Poe

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