Edgar Allan Poe said “I became insane. with long intervals of atrocious saneness. ” Throughout his short narratives ; “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” . Poe sets up his characters to subconsciously uncover their insanity. Often utilizing syntax hints and forms. Poe shows the lunacy of the storytellers of his short narratives. The changeless subject of denial of insanity farther convinces the reader of the character’s psychosis. Characters themselves frequently prove they are non in touch with world through their actions. Through sentence structure. denial of insanity. and character’s actions. Poe allows his storytellers in “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” to uncover their ain insanity. Sentence construction is used systematically by Poe in his short narratives to assistance in his character’s uncovering their ain insanity. When the storyteller in “The Black Cat” is naming the pets he and his married woman have. the last 1 he lists is a cat. “We had birds. gold-fish. a all right Canis familiaris. coneies. a little monkey. and a cat. ” ( Poe H/O )

The cat is italicized. doing the reader to inquire why the accent is so of import. As the reader progresses through the remainder of the narrative. it becomes apparent that the cat is of a strong significance to the storyteller. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” . the storyteller has some kind of disease that heightens his senses. He besides has a type of obsessional compulsive upset. doing him to fixate on his roommate’s clouded oculus. In the beginning of the narrative. he says “I think it was his oculus! -yes. it was this! ” ( Poe H/O ) The short jerky idea form here shows the head of the storyteller is less than sound. While in “The Black Cat” . the sentence structure cogent evidence is less obvious. though boding the narrative by puting such a elusive intimation as to how much the cat truly affairs in the remainder of the narrative. the grammatical hints in “The Tell-Tale Heart” are much more obvious because they pertain more to the ideas of the storyteller. Listening and paying attending to how talkers and storytellers in talk in any text are critical in understanding their character. By observing how Poe uses grammar and context hints. readers can more profoundly understand the head of the storyteller.

Syntax isn’t the lone manner Poe manipulates his storytellers to demo their ain lunacy. The changeless subject of denial of insanity farther convinces the reader of the characters’ inanity. Poe. in “The Black Cat” writes “Mad so would I be to anticipate it. in a instance where my very senses reject their ain grounds. Yet. mad I am non – and certainly do I non dream. ” ( H/O ) . Here. the storyteller of “The Black Cat” states that it is possible for his actions and thought procedure to be interpreted as mad. still in his head. he is non huffy at all. By denying his insanity. the storyteller creates a intuition in the reader. doing them oppugn the unity of his head. The storyteller of “The Tell-Tale Heart” is more inexorable about reiterating the fact that he is non insane. “…will you say that I am huffy? …I have heard many things in snake pit. How. so. am I huffy? ” ( Poe H/O ) The storyteller evidently worries about the fact that people may see him as a moonstruck.

The reader can deduce that by denying his deficiency of saneness. and cleaving to the hope that he may in fact have a sound head ; the storyteller has lost all sense of world. and can non be trusted. Both of these narratives have similar storytellers in the sense that they may hold one time been sane. and a traumatic event has pushed them over the border into the deepnesss of mental unsoundness. While the above points may be valid and turn out a point. nil truly shows who person is more than what he or she may make. The character’s actions in multiple short narratives by Poe show that they are non in touch with world. The short narrative “The Black Cat” may hold the best illustration of them all. When the storyteller of this narrative is hanging his cherished. beloved cat. Pluto. he is good cognizant of his actions. and yet. he can non halt himself from executing this homicidal title.

One forenoon. in cool blood. I slipped a noose about its cervix and hung it to the limb of a tree ; – hung it with the cryings streaming from my eyes and with the bitterest compunction at my bosom ; – hung it because I knew that it had loved be. and because I felt it had given me no ground of discourtesy ; – hung it because I knew that in so making. I was perpetrating a wickedness – a deathly wickedness that would so endanger my immortal psyche as to put it – if such a thing were possible – even beyond the range of the infinite clemency of the Most Merciful and Most Awful God. ( Poe H/O )