The Influence Of Romanticism In Edgar Allen Poe's Work
Edgar Allen Poe was influenced by the Romantic movement of his time, where character motivations were guided by emotions and passions rather than reason and concepts of the occult were examined. He explored numerous facets of human fascination with the concept of violence, death and the aftermath in his stories “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Masque of the Red Death”, and “The Black Cat” and how people can be driven to commit murder, to insanity and to face the inevitability of death. Poe, in his stories, delivers the idea that regardless of circumstance, wealth, sanity or health, death is an inevitable force that no one can escape from. Death exists as a constant influence within each of his stories, despite whether
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The narrator is convinced, “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!” (14-15) and this explanation is enough for him to justify the murder of another person. Driven by his beliefs that he would be freed from this ‘malevolent’ eye, the narrator pushes forward with his task until the old man is dead and his body must be hidden. The narrator, however, is unable to move forwards from this murder, as he even after the old man has passed away, the narrator is still able to hear his heartbeat. The sound haunts the narrator who becomes even more unhinged, firm in his belief that the sound is loud enough for the policemen who are interviewing him to overhear and that they mock his distress by pretending otherwise. The narrator cries, “It grew louder --louder --louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly…Was it possible they heard not? …no, no! They heard! --they suspected! --they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror!” (141-144). This drives the narrator to tear up the floorboards, revealing his crime to the police even though they had displayed no suspicions regarding the murder. In this story, Poe encourages the reader to contemplate the implications that the old man’s death had on the narrator. The narrator was unable to escape from his insanity, although he tried to overcome his madness by murdering what he thought was the
The narrator is convinced, “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!” (14-15) and this explanation is enough for him to justify the murder of another person. Driven by his beliefs that he would be freed from this ‘malevolent’ eye, the narrator pushes forward with his task until the old man is dead and his body must be hidden. The narrator, however, is unable to move forwards from this murder, as he even after the old man has passed away, the narrator is still able to hear his heartbeat. The sound haunts the narrator who becomes even more unhinged, firm in his belief that the sound is loud enough for the policemen who are interviewing him to overhear and that they mock his distress by pretending otherwise. The narrator cries, “It grew louder --louder --louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly…Was it possible they heard not? …no, no! They heard! --they suspected! --they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror!” (141-144). This drives the narrator to tear up the floorboards, revealing his crime to the police even though they had displayed no suspicions regarding the murder. In this story, Poe encourages the reader to contemplate the implications that the old man’s death had on the narrator. The narrator was unable to escape from his insanity, although he tried to overcome his madness by murdering what he thought was the