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The Tell Tale Heart Guilt Essay

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The Tell Tale Heart Guilt Essay
Edgar Allen Poe is infamously known for his dark and eerie tales and his works have frightened his audience for centuries and continues to do so. One of his most famous works, The Tell-Tale Heart, tells the story of a man who commits a murder and is fighting to convince himself that he's sane and successful in killing a man. Death in this short story pulls the plot together and thrills the reader. One of the main themes in this short story is the feeling of guilt. After taking another man's life and the conscience of guilt after taking that individual’s life could leave a huge burden of guilt within the murderer.According to Charles May from the Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, it states, “He admits that he cannot say when the idea to …show more content…
It tells the story of the rural south and it’s progression. According to the Faulkner Journal, it states, “..the focus is community and not the family.... Themes identified by many Faulkner scholars do not seem to apply. Signs of disorder and corruption permeate the novel as bedrock institutions of family, social class, patriarchy, and the courts fail to secure peace and protection for the novel's protagonists. Southern myths are shattered. Hypocrisy is exposed as the righteous members of proper society are shown to be lacking in Christian mercy, and the deviant members of outlaw communities are shown to be caring and faithful. Novelistically, the work is also problematic. The characters do not grow. There is no salvation or redemption. Indeed, apart from the rape of Temple Drake and the lynching of Lee Goodwin, nothing happens... Moreover, Faulkner provides few clues to the reader concerning the meaning of these violent events.”. In this novel, there aren’t many themes that are expressed throughout the novel instead the reader sees a lot of violence, rape, and since this is in the 30’s during the time of prohibition, there is crime in the south at this time. The decay of culture and society of the south is the main focus in this tale by William

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