Essay on The Insane Mind of Edgar Allan Poe Probes

The Insane Mind of Edgar Allan Poe Probes As a short-story writer, Poe was a fascinating man of imagination. In theme, Poe places the human mind under investigation and probes insanity beneath the surface of normal existence. He was the first author in American literature to make the neurotic, the heroic figure, the protagonist, in his stories. Poes most enduring tales are those of horror, the horror coming, from the working of an irrational or criminal mind, driven to evil or insanity by a perverse irrational force which, to Poe, is an elementary impulse in man. Typically, The Cask of Amontillado, The Black Cat, and The Tell Tale Heart are three criminal stories of this kind. In these tales, Poe takes readers in the murky†¦show more content†¦With a fully organized plan in mind, he showed no mercy to his prey and killed him. But sometimes, this strong emotion of hatred of the characters is not simple hatred, but with an underlying mercy and guilt, and their hatred is even irrational. In The Black Cat, the narrator can not help but hate the cat, but meanwhile, still bearing an underlying feeling of guilt and mercy towards it. After each time he gets the cat hurt, he feels sorry for it, and feels himself guilty and cruel. And in The Tell-Tale Heart, the reason to kill is even less reasonable. The narrator knows very well that the old man has done no wrong to him and is actually very kind and helpful to him, sometimes just like a father. But strong feeling of hatred still emerges for just a bizarre and inconvincible reason. Though he feels his guilt, he can not stop but to kill the poor old man. In both stories, the conscience and humanity of the narrators are so feeble and pale, and so the evil hatred and cruelty can easily control the actions of the narrators. Next, there is a familiarity in all these three stories that is the stories are all told by the narrators through them confessing their heinous crimes. They all confess in a calm tone, and seem three story tellers telling their stories politely to their listeners. And the three narrators never are remorseful and feel that what they did was their fault. In The Tell Tale Heart, for example, the narrator confesses to defend