Edgar allan poe PDF

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Edgar allan poe's life and stories. Analysis....

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When Madness Takes Over

During the Victorian era, there was a commonly known genre referred to as Gothic fiction which consisted of terrors such as madness, insanity and obsession. Poets ,like Edgar Allan Poe , defined the true meaning of gothic horrors through literary work such as in his short story, "The Tell Tale Heart." Similarly to Edgar A. Poe, Robert Browning's demonstrates a gothic fiction genre in his dramatic monologues and poems like "Porphyria's Lover" where he describes the madness that takes over a psychotic character. In both pieces of literature, the speakers convict a murder and begin to act upon their madness due to the paranoia hidden in their true selves. In "The Tell Tale Heart" and "Porphyria's Lover" , the protagonists behave insanely to those who are innocent because they allow madness to take over their sane minds. In "The Tell Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, the speaker starts the short story off by stating how nervous he is. This shows his madness and guilt he is suffering because of his own wrong doings. He says, "TRUE!-nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" This quote displays the use of imagery because it allows one to visualize how nervous he is. It also enables the audience to hear how loud he is being and feel the guilt he is expressing through his words. Therefore, this demonstrates how he is trying to defend his sanity by stating that he is not guilty, crazy or nervous. However, he begins to tell the story of old man with a vulture eye that haunts him and confesses that he has murdered the innocent man. The protagonist allows his paranoia of the evil eye to take over him and he behaves according to his madness and annoyance of the old man. Even after the man's death, the murderer hears loud thumping noise and confesses to the cops that he has killed a man and placed his body in the floorboards under the bed. He exposes himself through his confession

which is a symbol for guilt and insanity that is portrayed in the short story. This lucidly proves not only can a character be guilty enough to confess his own killing, but to also let his own insanity guide him into pursuing his mad behaviors. The poem "Porphyria's Lover", once titled "Madhouse Cells" by Robert Browning, portrays the abnormal psychology in human beings and how madness drives them to do behaviors they normally wouldn't do. The poem is told by a psychotic killer who loves his girlfriend but tends to show it in an ironic way. In addition, the use of irony is demonstrated when he places his head for comfort and affection on her shoulder and then later strangles his girlfriend with her own hair wrapped around her neck. The twist is that he just sits there and admires her corpse as if nothing happened. After her death, he states, "And I, its love, am gained instead! Porphyria's love: she guessed not how" which is ironic because he believes that by killing his girlfriend, he received her love and therefore, he does not feel any guilt. His madness drove him to killing his beloved and persuading himself that what he had done was not wrong because according to him, "God has not said a word!" This means that because he was not punished for it and didn't feel that his doings were a sin, he believes that his mad behaviors were acceptable. Both Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Browning display a theme of madness and paranoia. In the short story and the poem, the theme is portrayed when the protagonists have this feeling of annoyance, or paranoia in which enables them to behave insanely towards people are truly innocent. This is because these characters do not accept the madness within themselves and have a unique perspective where they see that their behaviors are not wrong or sinful. In "The Tell Tale Heart", the speaker states, "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye ! Yes, it was this ! He had the

eye of a vulture." This indicates that the killer had no reason to murder the man, besides the annoyance of the pale blue eye. He states that the old man has never wronged him either and that he loved him. Furthermore, this proves that the speaker's paranoia for the eye drives him to hurt the innocent man and the madness of his self identity takes over his mind and physical behaviors. In "The Tell Tale Heart" , the main character is obsessed with the idea of relinquishing the vulture eye before the eye continues manipulating him and before he exceeds his madness level, if there is one. The speakers in both stories are obsessed with an idea that vexes them and therefore, they behave deliriously to get rid of the paranoia they've exposed within themselves. This shows how the characters share some similar characteristics such as insanity, obsession and madness. Conclusively, "The Tell Tale Heart" and "Porphyria's Lover" both demonstrate the contradictions between love and hate. The mad characters have love for those innocent victims but also express their sense of hate towards them through their maniacal behaviors. Psychological reasoning for behaviors like these indicate that sometimes people harm those they love in their lives just like these characters have done for their own self satisfaction....