How does Poe create a picture of the psychotic/insane central character?

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How does Poe create a picture of the psychotic/insane central character?

Poe manages to create a realistic vision of an insane narrator by using a range of various methods. For instance, in "The Tell-Tale Heart" Poe makes use of light and darkness, the description of the man’s eye and the time frame to make the story more scary than anything else: “I put in a dark lantern all closed, closed so that no light shone out”. This creepiness of the story indicates the madness of the narrator to the reader.

Furthermore, Poe gives the reader the impression that the narrator is very intelligent, deceptive and somewhat charming. For example he says “They sat, and while I answered cheerily”. This shows that he is putting on a good front for the police and making them believe he is normal. His intelligence makes him even more dangerous and worrying because of what he is capable of doing.

Moreover, during the story the central character is constantly trying to convince the reader that he is not insane. However the more you go on, the more you realise that he is mad: “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever”. This shows that he is incredible obsessive and clearly confused in his mind, which is a sign of madness. The insane obsession he gets with the old man’s eye takes over his mind and leads him to murder.

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In addition, the graphical and intense descriptions help you enter the narrator’s mind “He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold”. When he describes it, one can only have the feel of disgust just imaging it as you get the impression that the eye looks as if it is dead, maybe this is why the narrator feels that he has the right to kill the man.

Furthermore, Poe uses long sentences for explaining things like when the narrator tells you about his ...

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