Tell Tale Heart

The short story I am choosing to write about for today’s class (or blog assignment) is Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart”. I know the assignment is to choose one particular quote from the story and analyze it, but I find that, with this particular story, it would be more effective to analyze a series of quotes, as to derive an overall tone for the writing. This would help to illustrate my opinion of the story, the quotes, and the author. In this story, Poe describes a series of events, using a first person narrative, pertaining to the murder of an old man. The character he creates is quite funny (to me), which is presumably intentional. I say that because it matches the use of dark humor and irony that I have come to expect of Poe. Throughout the story, he (the character) addresses the reader directly, only to ask things like “How, then, am I mad?” and to assure us that he is sane, despite the fact that he is plotting and executing the murder of an old man because he did not like his eye. The character will then go on to do things like rationalize and demonstrate to us, the readers, reasons that would surely disprove the notion (that no one other than himself has posed, mind you)  that he is insane. He will say things like “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!” Surely, someone who possesses such wisdom, caution, and foresight must be sane. In fact, one of the defining characteristics of a “mad man” is that they would never suspect themselves mad (at least from a legal standpoint).  Anyway, to me, this exemplifies the tone in much of Poes work, which is abundant in both black humor and sarcasm. For example, one of my favorite quotes from “A Premature Burial” is where he states “the most ghastly extremes of agony are endured always by man the unit, and never by man the mass. For this, let us thank merciful god!” Though they are presented in different contexts, I find the quotes rather similar in tone. They both seem accompanied by a general feeling of hopelessness or futility, which is recognized and laughed at. I digress. In the end, the sanity he believes he possesses was lost when he hears the continuous beating of a heart long after the old man had died. Granted, that part wasn't as funny to me as the former mentioned, but it may have been to Poe. He seemed like a pretty dark guy.