Character Study Part Two

Allen 1

Alex Allen

Ms. Zayn

Advanced Lit/Comp

18 September 2009

Character Study of “The Tell-Tale Heart” Part Two

In the beginning of “The Tell-Tale Heart” the protagonists keeps denying on how he is not mad. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should of seen me.” No normal, sane person would of said this. Only a mentally unstable person would say such a thing. Poe also implies that the protagonists is mad by when he says

“I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it▬oh so gently! 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… I moved it slowly▬very, very slowly so that I might not disturb the old man’s sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha!▬would a madman have been so wise as this?”

Now if the protagonist was not mad and some sanity in him, he would of realized how he is a madman and should commit himself to an asylum. But he does not and thinks himself perfectly sane to take an hour to look into a room to watch a man sleep for seven nights just to find an opportunity to rid an eye. Yes, he is perfectly sane.