How does poe make us understand that the narrator is mad?
Poe makes us understand that the narrator is mad by making him talk and shout directly at us, by using exclamation marks as his punctuation. When you read what the narrator is saying to you, you can feel the emotion, and hear the speed and volume of his voice. He does this by the use of punctuation, short sentences, and putting some words into capitals; one example of a capital worded sentence is, ‘it was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND – MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON.’ The effect the narrator has on the reader is that he is a psychotically, scared man, that knows he has done wrong; but thinks that he has done right and it plays on his mind as if he was possessed. Another effect that the narrator has on the reader is his choice of accessory and other strange, intriguing words and sentences. An example is, ‘the disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.’ The effect that it creates is that he has heard good, bad and all things in between; the narrator said this because he wants you to think him in a normal, level-headed man that has really got the mind of the devil. The effect that it creates is that the man could be suffering from schizophrenia, a disease of the mind, which gives you a split personality; but it was never picked up from him because he had never noticed the old man’s eye in that way before, so he suffered from it and it played on his mind for a long time, until he couldn’t hold it any longer.
The way that Poe has used his punctuation, has the effect that the narrator can have a very changeable way in that he speaks, when he speaks about something that has haunted him for a long to short period of time. He uses a great amount of exclamation marks in his sentences, which shows that he is speaking loudly and or quickly. Poe uses a lot of commas and semi colons to split up long sentences
The way that Poe has used his punctuation, has the effect that the narrator can have a very changeable way in that he speaks, when he speaks about something that has haunted him for a long to short period of time. He uses a great amount of exclamation marks in his sentences, which shows that he is speaking loudly and or quickly. Poe uses a lot of commas and semi colons to split up long sentences