The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe *AP

To begin, I love this story. It's great. Now onto my thoughts. So obviously we know that the narrator is mad, if not by his insane behavior, then by his constant insisting of the opposite. What I wish to talk about is the comedy and the psychological. Poe did a great job with comedy in this story. Of course the whole tale is rather frightening, but the narrator is so odd and horrible that he's actually amusing. Just the reasons he gives for his sanity are funny in themselves. He claims he cannot be mad if he is so ingenious. An example would be "And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. OH, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in!" This quote actually reminds me of Holden Caulfield. Holden constantly reasons with himself about things that are either ridiculous or unimportant. In the case of this narrator, he makes such a big deal out of thrusting his head in, proving that he is so smart, which is funny. Why would anyone care how he thrust his head in? They don't. This is comedy. The narrator continues on and on to talk of how smart and cunning he is. As the story proceeds, he falls deeper and deeper into madness. Which creates a scarier story, but if you look past that fact, it also makes for a more ridiculous and comedic character. Now I'm going to switch to a more psychological aspect. I know that I've called this man mad , but the truth is he probably is not. The narrator obviously has a psychological problem. That doesn't make him a crazy freak. It means he needs help. Help that was not given in those days without condescension. I almost pity the killer. He thinks he is perfectly fine while the world thinks he is insane. For all we know, this whole story could be a lie. None of the events could have happened. When you are dealing with a disturbed narrator, you cannot trust a thing you read. Is there really an old man? If so did he really get killed? Did police really come? Is this man just having a panic attack due to an unhealthy mental state? All questions that can never be answered. Perhaps not even by Poe himself. It gives you something to think about.