The Tell-Tale Heart
In the "Tell-Tale Heart", Edgar Allen Poe examines themes of sanity vs. madness
through and violence, mental imagery and confusion as well as repetition of thoughts for emphasis. The narrator possesses several qualities of mental instability that lead to his horrible crimes- nervousness, delusions of grandeur, violence and auditory hallucinations. These features of mental instability are repeated numerous times through out this story, one of Poe's shortest works.
The first and perhaps most obvious symptom of mental illness exhibited by the narrator is nervousness. Th…