All the irony in the tale alludes to the idea of an insane narrator. The writer also provides a number of instances where symbolism is used to emphasize the theme. The heart in the first place symbolizes the narrator’s strong guilt of the crimes he committed. He seemed to hear the heart of the old man beat after he had murdered him beat. This was because of the guilt of murdering the man and the fear of being caught.
#1 Nafiul Hossain (20) Rubric Assessment Mr. Sinkinson, p.6 (20) Grammar Focus English 9 October 4, 2012 The Retired Lunatic In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, General Zaroff became a mentally unstable chronic killer after he retired from the war. At first General Zaroff was mentally stable, but after he came back from the war he started killing people for amusement. He killed animals from a young age for fun. But after the war, he got more amusement killing humans rather than animals. Before the war he was a part of the community.
It was the “impulses, desires, and feelings that a person is unaware of but that influence emotions and behavior” that were the driving force of the killing (1542). His disposal of the body shows premeditation, “They drove…Matt thinking now of the hole he and Willis had dug last Sunday: (109). He used a handkerchief to touch everything, and had a glove for when he touched the gun. He would also shut the car door with his hips. These fearful emotions he used to protect himself were much like the emotions he felt which caused to be overprotective of his son.
His job is to lead the convicted men to their doom and makes sure everything goes routinely and swift. While the servant from “A Tell-Tale Heart” is a psychopathic man who lets his obsession over his boss’s glass eye lead him to plot and carry out his death. Throughout both stories, the protagonists reach a moment when they need to take part in the organized killings though, their different views on life and responses to the deaths set them apart. As a result, even though the prison guard and the servant both played key roles in the executions of the victims, they both have different outlooks and reactions towards their deeds. When it comes to the obstacle that the prison guard and the servant face, they are both in the position of ending the lives of their victims on pre-determined dates.
Rainsford in the beginning had no sympathy for the hunted and seemed like a cruel man. Rainsford though changes to a hero once he faces Zaroff, but Rainsford beats the general at his own game and kills him. With the death of the General, Rainsford had saved the lives of those who would visit the island in the future. This was because Rainsford had shown heroic qualities with his battle against Zaroff. Such as courage, if Rainsford
Montresor Is Just a Normal Man I think Montresor is a normal person. Yes he made his thought came real, and he actually killed a friend, but one can tell from the story that he is just a human being like us. Montresor killed Fortunato out of hatred, of vengeance. Different like some serial killer who killed because they love “killing” Montresor didn’t want to get caught, so he chose a place no one will ever notice and told the story fifty years after the incident. A serial killer will eagerly want people to find the body, so that his/her “work” will be seen.
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.
The narrator tells of how the over-acuteness of his senses turns his life into a murderous nightmare. This paper examines characteristics associated with known psychopathic killers in an attempt to create a psychological profile of the narrator. The narrator will be referred to as the Killer throughout the remainder of the paper. The characteristics assigned to the killer will be illustrated in terms of psychological theory. I will also attempt to determine if the Killer was in fact legally insane, and whether that might preclude him from any responsibility for his heinous act.
He had feared that the neighbors would have been able to hear the old man’s frantic heartbeat as he waited to see the intruder of his house. After the narrator kills the man, he dismembers the body and hides it under the floorboards of the bedroom in which he was killed. No traces are left of the murder, and the officers who investigate the house do not discover anything out of the ordinary when there the next morning. However, the narrator’s paranoia over the dead man’s ‘beating heart’ is his downfall. The narrator believes that he can still hear the heart beating below the floorboards, and he cannot understand why the officers in the same room are not able to hear it.
Another conflict he faces is near the end of the book when he confesses to the murders. He at first told the detective that he had killed only Mr. Clutter and Kenyon, and then later before signing his written statement, he wanted to make it right and confessed that he had indeed killed Mr. Clutter, Kenyon, Nancy, and Mrs. Clutter. His strengths are that he is sensitive, creative, smart, and thoughtful. His weaknesses are that he comes from a troubled background, and that he has been in and out of jail. Mr. Richard Eugene Hickock is the other main character in this novel.