Edgar Allan Poe is considered the father of modern horror stories. He wrote psychologically thrilling tales that examined the human psyche and often dealt with themes of death, loss, and sorrow. Poe struggled with depression and occasional bouts of madness throughout his life, stemming from tragic events like the early deaths of his parents. His 1843 short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is narrated by an unknown man who describes murdering an old man with a "vulture eye" and then proceeds to tell the story, showing obvious signs of madness like sneaking into the man's room at night and growing furious at the sight of his eye. Poe uses literary techniques like repetition and point of view to emphasize

1. Presented by :
Noreen Nazir
Presented to:
Ma’m Ruqia
M.Phil. Lit. III (UOL, Gujrat Campus

2. poe
Poe can be
considered the father
of the modern horror
story.
He was famous for
writing psychologically
thrilling tales
examining the depth of
the human psyche.
 His writing is
considered to be dark
because they usually
deal with death, loss,
sorrow.

3. Craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors
characterized by certain abnormal, mental
patterns.

4.  Poe had a tragic life from a young age when his
parents died. This is often reflected in his stories,
showing the characters with a mad state of mind
 Death: Edgar Allan Poe lived a tortured life where
he watched his loved ones die and he drowned his
sorrow in alcohol and fought depression.
 Madness: He had to continually fight off depression
and had occasional episodes of madness.

5. Published in 1843.
 Unknown narrator told the story.
 the genre of the story are:
 gothic
 short story and
 horror

6. Conti…
The narrator
describes a
Murder he
committed
 The victim was
an old man with
“ Vulture eye”
 The murder is
done and now
the Murderer tell
the story .

7.  Poe uses point of view to emphasis the main ides of
madness .
 It support the central idea.
 For example:
 Sneaking into his room.
 Waiting an hour for the eye to open.
 Shining a light directly on his eye.

8. Cont…
This relates the
main idea of
madness because
the narrator
obvious has
something wrong
with him.
 He gets mad
about an eye.
 killed some one
 hears things

9.  Poe uses repetition to show how surprised the narrator
was that the eye was open. After many long nights of
sneaking into the old man’s room, the eye was finally
open.
“it was open, wide, wide open, and I grew
furious as I gazed upon it.”
 The repetition shows that the narrator was very
surprised that it was open because it hadn’t been open
of the other night. This relates to madness because he
“grew furious” when he saw the eye and normally
people would not furious about an eye.

10. Love and hate
Psychological complex of
two opposite emotions is
found in Poe writing.
Poe explore love and hate
in many stories like in “Tell
Tale Heart” , the narrator
tells the reader how he loves
the old man but he hates his
“vulture eye”.
Love Hate

11. The black cat
 in the poem
narrator drinks and
he abuses his wife
verbally and
physically.
He killed his cat
then he finds anew
cat that looks like old
cat but with white
spots on its chest.
His wife loves it but
he tries to get rid of
cat…

12. Cont…
In both writings
the narrator
becomes violent
and harm to
those he once
love.
In both the
narrator change
from the loving to
the madman with
an axe.