In both of Poe’s stories, the narrators have undeniable obsessions that they can not control. In The “Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator, who claims he is not insane, has an obsession with the eye of the old man he is living with. He despised this eye and would sneak into the old man’s bedroom every night for a week around midnight to behold his eye. The narrator hated this eye and wanted to destroy it. However, he did not look down on the old man, it was the vulture-like eye that the narrator disliked. “And this I did for seven long nights-every night just at midnight-but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye” (Poe 139). In “The Black Cat” the narrator obsesses over his black cat named Pluto. Of all his other pets, this was h

is favorite pet and playmate. He spent most of his time with this cat and it followed him wherever he went. Later in the story, the man would exhibit awkward and greedy feelings and stay out late heavily drink alcohol. Pluto would try to stay away from him when in this state, resulting in the narrator seriously hurting him in an attempt to erase those feelings. “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe 13). The narrator unwillingly hurt his cat, and later regrets his actions. This action further proves his insanity as he obsesses over the cat.

All in all, Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” demonstrate the theme of insanity. This is shown through the narrators’ obsessions of the vulture-like eye and black cat, the murders of the old man and the wife, and the false confidences of the murders displayed by the narrators. These three issues undoubtedly prove that both narrators in the short stories are evidently insane.

Finally, the insanity of both narrators is shown by their false confidence of the murders they committed. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the police show up due to the shriek of the old man. The narrator insists on seating the police in the very room the corpse was buried. Just as the police were confident that the old man was not in the house, the narrator confesses he murdered the old man due to the imaginary heart beats getting louder and louder due to his insanity, which in turn leads the narrator to death. “‘Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -tear up the planks! -here, here! -it is the beating of his hideous heart”

Some topics in this essay:
Black Cat”, Tell-Tale Heart”, Allen Poe’s, black cat”, “the black cat”, “the black, “the tell-tale heart”, tell-tale heart”, “the tell-tale, Eye” Poe, theme insanity, murders wife, tell-tale heart” “the, heart” “the black, towards cat, false confidence, short stories, heart” “the, Edgar Allen, black cat” narrator,