Insanity in Edgar Allen Poe's Works - Essay Example

s Insanity in Edgar Allen Poes works Introduction The human mind will always generate and will be “mined” with various thoughts. Individuals would constantly or irregularly develop those thoughts based on the external situations. When it is the right time, he/she will try to “translate” or actualize those thoughts into actions and reality. When that actualization happens in a smooth and expected manner, it will provide optimal happiness and contentment to the individuals. However, if those thoughts could not be aptly actualized or erroneously ‘translated’ into action or reality because of the negative or dubious nature of those thoughts, it will lead to negative reactions in the individuals’ minds. If these reactions reach extreme ends, the minds would become unstable thereby leading to insanity. On those same lines, in Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Black Cat” from the book titled Poe: Poetry, Tales, and Selected Essays, the protagonists’ thoughts were negative and so when they tried to wrongly ‘translate’ those thoughts into reality, it did not work out causing insanity among those protagonist and even led to loss of innocent lives. So, focusing on the insanity of the central characters in the above-mentioned four works of Edgar Allen Poe, the discussion will delve further regarding how they all became insane and how their madness reached high extremes thereby leading to dangerous repercussions. Insanity in the “Cask of Amontillado” The “Cask of Amontillado” is about the protagonist Montresor’s retelling of how he heinously murdered his friend named Fortunato around fifty years ago. Montresor first lures into his family vaults, gives him wine to make him unbalanced, and then puts bricks all over him as a sort of immurement. He indulges in such a monstrous crime mainly as a mindless vengeance, as he felt that Fortunato has insulted him many times. After committing such a bizarre and insane act, Montresor fails to exhibit any remorse thereby implying that his mind is unstable and becoming insane. At the outset, he shows some signs that he was actually confessing to his gruesome killing, however, he changes track immediately. This perspective can be understood from the sentence, “My heart grew sick -- on account of the dampness of the catacombs” (Poe “Cask of Amontillado”). That is, after Montresor states the first part of the sentence, “My heart grew sick” one might get the feeling that he could be remorseful for his act. However, when one focuses on the second or last part of the sentence, “on account of the dampness of the catacombs”, it is clearly evident he do not have any repentance for his crime and is mainly speaking in an unstable manner because of his unstable mind. Poe has also incorporated number of scenes to imply that Montresor is an insane individual who does not show any traces of humanity. For example, while immuring Fortunato in his family vaults, Montresor starts to hear Fortunato’s distressing voice and senses his struggles to break open the covering wall. However, he does not exhibit any hint of pity for him because his mind is totally unstable. As he has become insane, he even acts in a disturbing manner by enjoying Fortunato’s struggles to live. “The noise lasted for several minutes, during which, that I might hearken to it with the more satisfaction, I ceased my labors and sat down upon the bones. When at last the clanking subsided, I resumed the trowel” (Poe “Cask of Amontillado”). So, these words of Montresor make it clear that Montresor is an insane individual who did not have any remorse for his gruesome murder and instead enjoys it. Insanity in “The Tell-Tale Heart” In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the central character or narrator is obsessed with the abnormal eye of a powerless old man and even goes to the extent of killing the man. That is, the narrator lives with an old man, who has clouded, blue “vulture-like” eyes. These eyes distress the narrator so much that he wants to kill the old man. “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; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart”). But, this thought did not ‘translate’ into immediate action. For eight nights, the narrator tries to murder the old man in his bed, but as the old mans eyes will be shut (hiding the abnormal eye), it diminishes the narrator’s urge to kill him. So, even though the narrator wants to kill a harmless man for insane reasons, he could not kill because of another insane reason. This insane point of view of the central character also gives inner perspectives about his/her character. That is, he/she is ‘seeded’ with doubts whether he/she is insane or not. In the early parts of the story, the narrator indicates about the afflictions. For example, he inquires “How then am I mad?”, for which he/she himself replies that , “observe how healthily--how calmly I can tell you the whole story” (Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart”). Even after ‘translating’ the thought of killing into action after a lot of hesitation, he could not conceal the crime due to an unstable mind. That is, after killing the man, he insanely feels that the heart of the man is still beating and that creates fear in him thereby leading to his confession. Due to his obsession with the old man’s eye, he commits the crime. However, in the end, his obsession with the old man’s heart convicts him of the crime thereby clearly explicating his insanity. So, this short story deals with the unbalanced workings of the human mind and also illustrates how there will be destructive repercussions, if the human mind becomes insane. Insanity in “The Pit and the Pendulum” The short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” recounts the experiences of a prisoner who has been locked up in a room filled with complete darkness. The prisoner is narrating his fears and anxiety which reveal his disturbed state of mind. His mind was focused only on one thing and that was the death sentence awarded to him. “The sentence, the dread sentence of death, was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears. After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum” (Poe “The Pit and”). The fear of death makes him to wrongly fathom the size of his room so that he can locate a way to escape. However, the loss of consciousness averts him from fulfilling his aim. In between consciousness and unconsciousness, he is tortured in several ways. The manner in which the prisoner describes the dangers which befall upon him in the prison points towards his insane mind. “Demon eyes, of a wild and ghastly vivacity, glared upon me in a thousand directions where none had been visible before, and gleamed with the lurid lustre of a fire that I could not force my imagination to regard as unreal” (Poe “The Pit and”). His mind is so distressed that he starts to hallucinate. The more he tries to escape his death, the more he sinks into lunacy. So, this work of Poe also reflects how the main protagonist caught in a restrictive situation becomes insane and acts in an unstable manner. Insanity in “The Black Cat” The narrator in the short story “The Black Cat” begins his account by describing his compassionate nature and his love for animals. His favorite pet was a black cat named Pluto who followed the narrator wherever he went. The speaker loved his pets but he frequently abused them under the influence of alcohol, with Pluto being the only exception. However, one night, he forcibly picked the cat upon which she bit him. Enraged by this, the narrator grabbed the cat and removed one eye from the socket with a knife. This was his first atrocious act but instead of feeling guilty he remained unaffected by the event thereby reflecting hint of insanity. Days passed and his anger for the cat grew making him do the unthinkable. He kills the cat by hanging it. At the same time, the narrator finds another cat resembling Pluto near his house and feels he has returned to life. However, it is not sure whether this cat is real or an imagination of his mind which was tormented by the death of Pluto. He hates that “cat” also and tries to kill it using an axe, but when his wife intervenes, he angrily kills her. The protagonist commits the murder and is not disturbed by any feelings of culpability. There is no feeling of remorse within him and that again reflects his insane mind. The narrator in the story “The Black Cat” presents his reasons for the crime just as a reaction to the incidents. “Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm ……in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects” (Poe “The Black Cat”). These words reveal the attitude of the narrator who thinks that he has done nothing wrong. So, his alcoholism coupled with his insanity made him act violently leading to grave repercussions. Conclusion From the above analysis, it is possible to state that when the four lead characters from the four short stories failed to actualize or translate their thoughts into actions, it led to instability of their mind thereby leading to insanity. All these four characters were so obsessed with a specific thought; they lose their power to reason and behave sanely. The narrator of “The Cask of Amontillado” had the inner wish of killing Fortunato as part of his revenge plan. This inner wish carved for attention and implementation and when that wish achieved completion, Montresor’s mindset deteriorated causing madness. Likewise, in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the thoughts of the central character was on killing the old man with abnormal eyes, but certain factors prevented him from translating that thought into action, making him mentally unstable. Even after killing the old man, he becomes more mentally unstable. In “The Pit and the Pendulum”, the protagonist is confined within a dark room as a prisoner, with his attempts to escape breaking apart at the basic stage itself. His constriction and the impeding death further mentally deteriorate the protagonist thereby making him lose his sanity. In “The Black Cat”, the lead character even after killing his cat and his wife does not express any remorse. His already unstable mind further worsens leading to insanity. To sum up, it is evident that insanity was a common theme in these works of Poe, and he seems to have dealt to focus on how human mind could deteriorate based on external situation and inherent thoughts. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” Poe: Poetry, Tales, and Selected Essays. Library of America College Editions. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Poe: Poetry, Tales, and Selected Essays. Library of America College Editions. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Pit and the Pendulum ” Poe: Poetry, Tales, and Selected Essays. Library of America College Editions. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Black Cat.” Poe: Poetry, Tales, and Selected Essays. Library of America College Editions. Read More