How Women and Mental Illness Were the Main Contributors to the Eminent Darkness in Edgar Allen Poe’s Writing Edgar Allen Poe led a deeply dark and depressing life as he watched every single woman he had ever loved die from Tuberculosis. As Poe watched his mother die at the young age of three and would continue to watch others die during the duration of his life, it is evident from his literary work that he was left psychologically traumatized. While these events in his life undoubtedly caused Poe to sink into a deep depression throughout large portions of his life, because of the time period he lived in it is unclear whether or not he was mentally ill solely because of these events, or if these events just furtherly triggered the psychiatric problems that would have been evident regardless. Considering …show more content…
that he experienced the death of his mother at such a young age and whether Poe realized it or if it was subconscious, this event likely led to his obsession of death present in his writing.
In the “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator tells the story of how he murdered an old man with an “evil-eye” while at the same time attempting to prove his sanity and how his actions were justified. While the narrator in this story attempts to prove his sanity, he only disproves his sanity by revealing the contradiction of his profiled murder of the old man. Poe expresses many different meanings, paradoxes, contradictions, and symbolism within this piece of work. One contradiction or paradox in this piece is the pale blue eyes of the old man that the narrator describes as being evil, the contradiction being that the “eye” of the old man turns into “I”, therefore proving how the obviously insane or mentally ill narrator cannot see that the madness is not within the old man’s evil eye, but within himself. The “evil eye” is in fact representative of the “evil I” actions the man cannot see in himself. This paradox only further proves the contradiction of the narrator attempting to
prove his sanity. The narrator sees the old man’s eye and himself as completely separate and unrelated which shows why he is unable to draw connection that he was in the wrong and that he is mentally ill. The narrator justifies his murdering of the old man by stating that he is nervous but that his actions are not considered insane because they were done calmly and controllably. The man cannot distinguish between his uncalled for actions and the old man’s innocence. The man’s filmed over eye to the narrator may subconsciously represent the old man’s distance from the beautiful things and the overall meaning of life. One could even go on to further conclude that the man with the filmed, evil eye is symbolic of how Poe felt about his step-father. Poe stated in his lifetime that men were only mean to him and that the only good in his life came from women. This “evil eye” that the narrator saw in the old man could also be symbolic of how he viewed all men in general compared to how he viewed women. All of Edgar Allen Poe’s literary works explored the meaning and depth of what today would be considered as mental illness. In Poe’s time period, there was not hardly anything known about mental illnesses compared to what we know today. If Poe were born today, many believe that he easily could have been diagnosed with Bipolar or manic-depression and could have been treated with the drug lithium. Alcoholism was present in other family members which leads many other scholars to believe that Poe was not the only one in his family who suffered from depression. Poe and others in his family used alcohol to alleviate the extreme feelings of depression and mood swings they most likely experienced. Another reason many believe that Poe would be considered Bipolar if he were alive today is because of the drastic changes in his moods throughout different times in his life. For example, after his first love and step-mother died of Tuberculosis, he was very depressed but as soon as he married Virginia, he became very happy and was described as acting childlike. While it is completely normal for someone to feel depressed after the death of a loved one and happy after falling in love, Poe’s moods were considered to be on opposite ends of the spectrum with no in between. These extreme changes in mood with no in between are considered a common symptom of Bipolar today. While there is no way to know for sure if Edgar Allen Poe was Bipolar, it is almost definitely evident that he suffered from some kind of mental illness regardless if it was triggered by life events or not.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story about a man who kills the old man next door. The
Poe’s character is clearly unwell from the beginning. The idea of the protagonist conflicting with something as mundane as an “Evil eye” suggest that the narrator may be a bit unstable, however the extent of that instability is not fleshed out until later. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the violence is carried out against the
Faculty of Arts and Humanities Department of European Languages and Literature Rana Al-Ghalib 1700871 Short Story LANE – 615 Final Paper Schizophrenia and Poe Outline Abstract Schizophrenia Schizophrenia in The Life and Work of Poe Schizophrenia Represented in The Fall of The House of Usher Conclusion Abstract Edgar Alan Poe is one of the major contributors to the literary canon. He was allegedly suffering from a mental disorder. His own psyche was said to be an inspiration for many of his works.
The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” murders an elderly man because he is fearful of the man’s “evil eye.” “He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe 37). The narrator explains that he is haunted by the man’s eye and the only way to
The article “Ego-Evil and The Tale- Tell Heart” by Magdalen Wing-chi Ki; argues the symbolism of the eye to represent selfishness and greed in “The Tale-Tell Heart.” Wing- chi Ki discusses that Ego- Evil is different from Superego-Evil. The Ego-Evil focuses more on oneself. Therefore, the Ego-Evil is more focused on self-love; while the Super-Ego “welcomes evil due to some "fanatical devotion" or an "ideological ideal" (Wing-chi Ki, Magdalen). The “fanatical devotion” shows the way that the narrator felt when he got rid of the body. The narrator is fascinated with thinking that he will get away with hiding the body of the man with the evil eye. The “ideological ideal” emphasizes on the narrator’s obsession with the man’s evil eye. This gives the narrator the idea of murdering the old man, but only because he feels so uneasy in the presence of the evil eye. Wing-chi Ki argues that Edgar Allan Poe gives the narrator so little knowledge of the old man. Therefore, this entices the narrator into viewing the old man based on his fondness for the man, and not the truth on why the evil eye is present. The narrator; therefore, judges the old man only on how he feels towards the eye itself, and not the old man.
The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator realizes that he absences a reason for killing the old man he lives with. He even starts to admit having to love the man. He states, “There was no reason for what I did. I did not hate the old man; I even loved him. He had never hurt me. I did not want his money. I think it was his eye” (Poe 64). Psychosis is seen in the difficult rationality the narrator uses to defend his murder. The logic the narrator provides is that he thinks the desire to murder the old man results from the man’s eye, which bothers him. He says, “When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye a cold feeling went up and down my back; even my blood became cold. And so, I finally decided I had to kill the old man and close that eye forever!” (Poe 65). The fact that by this man’s eye is what makes him very angry is such a irrelevant reason for the narrator to kill him. This proves that he is not mentally stable, anyone in their right state of mind would not want to commit such a crime due to an irritation of someone’s eye. This represents the idea that this narrator expresses his complete lack of sanity through the premeditation and planning he put into committing the murder. In the beginning of the story, he says “vulture eye” giving the impression that he is uncertain that the eye is the reason for the murder, he also says how he thinks it’s the eye, he uses past tense as opposed to declaring with certainty that this is why the killing of the man. This shows the contrast to how as a sane person would be sure that this is their reason for killing another person before committing.
Edgar Allen Poe’s juxtaposition between beauty and nightmare in “Dreamland” and “A Dream Within A Dream” reveals his perpetual struggle between mania and depression. Losing both of his parents at the age of eight, Poe went on to suffer from the ill judgement of a gambling addiction and social isolation during his stay at Virginia University (uncp.edu). After leaving the university, he obtained literary fame through his poetry, fiction, and criticism. However, Poe consistently squandered opportunities for much needed wealth by antagonizing important figures. The rash and antisocial habits of Edgar show a compelling diagnosis of mania. This mania, coupled with his fascination with death, general irritability, and eventual suicide verifies his the depressive part of bipolar disorder (nimh.nih.gov). Poe’s extreme highs and lows as a result of his manic depression enabled him to write the warped and wonderful poetry for which he is famous.
Poe's story demonstrates an inner conflict; the state of madness and emotional break-down that the subconscious can inflict upon one's self. In "The Tell-Tale Heart", the storyteller tells of his torment. He is tormented by an old man's Evil Eye. The storyteller had no ill will against the old man himself, even saying that he loved him, but the old man's pale blue, filmy eye made his blood run cold.
Edgar Allan Poe's mind seems to be a confusing and dark place. From his stories to his poems you can see the lurking insanity in his writings. The way Poe writes his stories and the events that take place and the way he thinks to wright, one might think his head is a strange place. Take “The Cask of Amontillado” for an example. This story has the twisted sense that killing someone is the best way for revenge, and the way Fortunato was buried alive in a cement wall seems like a heavy punishment for a little teasing. Each of Poe's writings displays some twisted, and somewhat sickening to some, ways inside his mind. The following is different stories he has written that exposes the insanity within.
Poe writes “The Tell Tale Heart” from the perspective of the murderer of the old man. When an author creates a situation where the central character tells his own account, the overall impact of the story is heightened. The narrator, in this story, adds to the overall effect of horror by continually stressing to the reader that he or she is not mad, and tries to convince us of that fact by how carefully this brutal crime was planned and executed. The point of view helps communicate that the theme is madness to the audience because from the beginning the narrator uses repetition, onomatopoeias, similes, hyperboles, metaphors and irony.
Does the narrator show weakness through this mental illness or is it a sophistical mind of a genius? This is the question that must be answered here. Throughout this discussion we will prove that the narrator is a man of a conscience mind and committed the crime of murder. Along with that we will expose Poe’s true significance of writing this short story, and how people were getting away with crime by justifying that they were insane.
“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest of intelligence,” Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is famous in the writing world and has written many amazing stories throughout his gloomy life. At a young age his parents died and he struggled with the abuse of drugs and alcohol. A great amount of work he created involves a character that suffers with a psychological problem or mental illness. Two famous stories that categorize Poe’s psychological perspective would be “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Both of these stories contain many similarities and differences of Poe’s psychological viewpoint.
To begin with, the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" projects his wickedness onto the old man which raises the primary question: Is it the "Evil Eye" of the old man which vexes the narrator or his/her own "I" that he /she fears to encounter? The narrator declares at the very beginning that "the eye of a vulture_ a pale blue eye, with a film over it" (Poe 317) is the main reason why he/she murders the old man. In that eye which "chille[s] the very marrow in [his/her] bones" ( Poe 319) resides the superb power of evilness which is actually hidden in the narrator's veiled psyche. Robinson In his article "Poe's 'The Tell Tale Heart'" re-conceptualizes the link between the "eye" and the "I" saying that "it's the narrator's evil 'I' that makes him see the evil eye in the old man"(377). However, throughout the whole story, there is no indication in utterances or actions for the vice of the old man. In contrast, the dissimulation and hypocrisy of the narra...
Through the first person narrator, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" illustrates how man's imagination is capable of being so vivid that it profoundly affects people's lives. The manifestation of the narrator's imagination unconsciously plants seeds in his mind, and those seeds grow into an unmanageable situation for which there is no room for reason and which culminates in murder. The narrator takes care of an old man with whom the relationship is unclear, although the narrator's comment of "For his gold I had no desire" (Poe 34) lends itself to the fact that the old man may be a family member whose death would monetarily benefit the narrator. Moreover, the narrator also intimates a caring relationship when he says, "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult" (34). The narrator's obsession with the old man's eye culminates in his own undoing as he is engulfed with internal conflict and his own transformation from confidence to guilt.
The Tell Tale Heart is a story, on the most basic level, of conflict. There is a mental conflict within the narrator himself (assuming the narrator is male). Through obvious clues and statements, Poe alerts the reader to the mental state of the narrator, which is insanity. The insanity is described as an obsession (with the old man's eye), which in turn leads to loss of control and eventually results in violence. Ultimately, the narrator tells his story of killing his housemate. Although the narrator seems to be blatantly insane, and thinks he has freedom from guilt, the feeling of guilt over the murder is too overwhelming to bear. The narrator cannot tolerate it and eventually confesses his supposed 'perfect'; crime. People tend to think that insane persons are beyond the normal realm of reason shared by those who are in their right mind. This is not so; guilt is an emotion shared by all humans. The most demented individuals are not above the feeling of guilt and the havoc it causes to the psyche. Poe's use of setting, character, and language reveal that even an insane person feels guilt. Therein lies the theme to The Tell Tale Heart: The emotion of guilt easily, if not eventually, crashes through the seemingly unbreakable walls of insanity.