Hey I am doing a Term Paper on Poe and I need to prove the Chacter in the tell Tale heart is a true Poe Neurotic Character but I do not have the Charactistics.....Plezz help me I will b 4ever greatfull! ~Thank You~

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Answers

Kristen,

As I understand it, neurosis is a mental and emotional disorder that is generally associated with a perplexing sense of reality and accompanied by anxiety, a disproportionate fear with reactions based less on reason than on instinct or elemental emotions.

The narrator of the story clearly demonstrates deranged behavior and confirms this madness by his very denial. His logic is convoluted, disjointed and self-serving. He attempts to convince us his "disease" has heightened his senses as opposed to masking reality. Of special sensitivity is his sense of hearing and this contributes to his dementia and his fears. He carefully and sequentially removes all reason and common motives for the murder of the old man until he arrives at his own conclusion that it was the old man's injured eye. His diminished ability to rationalize the old man's affliction as anything other than "evil" suggests to an inherent and instinctive fear of revulsion. His intuitive faculties become irrational and exaggerates his perceptions so that his sense of fear overrides rational behavior. During the visit from the police, his apparent calm and cooperation temporarily masks his fears but only for a short time before his intuition tells him that the police suspect the truth and he ultimately confesses his crime.

Forgive me for sounding critical but I have the idea you have yet to read the story. If you haven't, I can assure you it is virtually painless. There is also a good summary of this story on the Poe Decoder website at http://www.poedecoder.com

Regards,

Tis

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001