The Tell-Tale Heart -Poe

The character in this poem lives with an old man who is blind in one eye. This eye drives the character mad and he decides he must kill the man to rid of the eye. Every night the character would sneakily watch the man sleep, hoping to see the eye but it was always closed. The character feels that he must affirm that he is not mad because a mad man would never take such thought into this process. One night the old man wakes as the character is watching him. He shines the light on the dull eye and when he finds that it is open, he is infuriated by this dull eye. Then troubled by a new nuisance, the old man's beating heart filled with terror, the character feels he must rid of this man tonight for the neighbors might hear his treacherous, raging heart beat. The character unshielded the lamp, the old man screams and the bed is thrown on top of him, killing the old man. The character is filled with joy as he has rid of the dull eye and heart beat. The character dismembers the body, hiding it under the planks of the old mans very own floor. As police come later, alarmed by the shriek heard from neighbors, the character remains calm showing them the house, being so bold to sit in the old man's room. As he talks, a quiet beat gets louder and louder, convinced that they hear the beating too he confesses, no longer being able to handle the dreadful heart beat.

This poem shows the American Gothic theme distinctly. Through the mad character, Poe demonstrates how frightening the mind can be. Reading this can make it seem like the reader is the character, making them feel mad. This work puts the reader inside the mad, mysterious, mind of a killer. The most frightening part is that the character does not think of themselves as mad, they consider themselves justified and actually smart to act so precisly. This is scary, for this shows that the mind can convince the mad that they arn't actually mad. Poe is saying that we could all be mad in the mind and not even know it.

Is the point of not giving the character a name or gender to make the reader think they are the mad person?