Edgar Allen Poe - Tell Tale Heart

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Olivia Madison Sarah Madison September 21st 2011 Madness leads to Murder Many murders are the result of insanity. Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart” is an example of this. In this tale of murder and suspense, the main character's madness leads him to commit an unspeakable act. The motive was insane. A hired companion of an elderly gentlemen had an obsession with his employers eye which had a cataract on it. A cataract was common in those days and caused a flim to grow over the eye. “I loved the old man... For his gold I had no desire... Whenever (the eye) fell upon me my blood ran cold. I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever”. The caretakers obsession with the eye led him to meticulous preparation for the murder. The caretakers preparation for the old mans murder is strange. Every night at midnight the companion creeps up to the old mans bedroom door, with a shuttered latern in his hand. He slowly opens his victims door and he shines a single ray of light on his employers eye. “And this I did for seven long nights...but I found the eye always closed and so it was imposible to do the work”. This nightly ritual ends when the caretaker begins to hear a heart beat. The caretaker's insanity led him to hallucinate. On the eighth night, as usual, the caretaker is at the bedroom door and he sees the eye is open. Then he starts to hear what he believes to be the old man's hearbeat. “But the beating (of the old mans heart) grew louder louder!...And now, new anxiety siezed me, the sound sould be heard by a neighbour! The old man's hour had come!” The motive, the preperation ritual and the hallucinations, clearly show that the caretaker was completely insane. The murderer was clearly insane at the time of the crime. Sometimes insanity leads to deadly violence. “The eye would trouble no
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