Murder and the insanity associated with it. ... This is especially evident in his short stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart- and "The Black Cat- in which the common themes are murder, insanity, and darkness. ... It is this very line of thinking that Poe forces one to analyze in his short stories filled with murder, insanity, and darkness. ... All of these examples point out the acute insanity present in the character of the narrator. ... This adds even more to the horror of the macabre story. ...

• Word Count: 1106
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Insanity is defined as the state of being seriously mentally ill. In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and the song "Stan" the two narrators know personally how it is to go insane. ... At one point in the story, she starts to see a woman in the wallpaper. ... The wallpaper drove her to her insanity. ... Both narrators blame others for their insanity. ...

• Word Count: 1101
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the American judicial system, one very controversial defense strategy is the insanity defense. ... The insanity defense asserts that a criminal defendant should not be found guilty due to the his/her level of mental illness or insanity. ... The first famous insanity case happened in 1843, with the McNaughton case. ... "Few psycholegal issues are more controversial then the insanity defense. ... Insanity is not a psychiatric or scientific term it is a legal term. ...

• Word Count: 2402
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography

Best known for his short stories flooded with mystery and the macabre, Poe is recognized as one of the foremost masters of horror that United States has ever produced. ... Furthermore, in his review of Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales, he defends short story as preferable to the novel and states that the ideal short story should be short enough to be read at one sitting in order to preserve this unity of effect or rather impression. ... "2 On that account in Poe's short stories every aspect of the tale contributes to its overall tone, including the motif of madness. ... Therefore th...

• Word Count: 1406
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In both stories, the theme of Insanity is present by which the narrator has a certain obsession, engages in a murder, and displays a false confidence. These three matters straightforwardly depict the narrator's characteristic of being insane in both short stories. In both of Poe's stories, the narrators have undeniable obsessions that they can not control. ... To sum up, murder plays a big role in the theme of Insanity in these two short stories as both narrators" murders were resulted from their insane mentality. ... These three issues undoubtedly prove that both narrators in t...

• Word Count: 1166
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

In the short story, "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne makes his anti-Puritan beliefs evident through symbolism. This story is about realization. ... Another prime example of symbolism in this short story is in the dark cloud. ... This gives to the picture of an evil insanity. ... In "Young Goodman Brown", one of Hawthorne's short stories, he uses symbolism to back up his anti-Puritan beliefs. ...

• Word Count: 421
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

These are short gothic horror stories. The one theme, they all have in common, I believe is how easy it is for man to down slide into insanity. In "The Black Cat" we see the story of a man who reaches his end through insanity, with the help of alcohol. ... "The Cask of Amontillado" is a story of revenged and insanity. ... In the final story "The Tall-Tell Hart," Poe delivers a short story of a man slipping in insanity. ...

• Word Count: 869
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

This short story vividly reflects a woman in torment caused by her controlling husband, and displays the choices a woman makes to break free. This short story begins with a woman writing in, perhaps, a journal. ... Her developing insanity is a form of rebellion and a crucial turning point in the search for her personal independence. ... Here, the reader senses how critical her condition is, yet knows that nothing can stop the growth of her insanity. ... This short story reflects the wife's undying desire to break free from that that enslaves her, her husband, at the expense of her ow...

• Word Count: 728
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

On my first reading of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", I found the short story extremely well done and the author, successful at getting her idea across. Gilman's use of imagery and symbolism only adds to the reality of the nameless main character's sheltered life and slow progression into insanity or some might say, out of insanity. The short story is written in first person and it is from our nameless character's writing's that we are introduced to her world and her life. ... This method is very effective in that this story from someone else...

• Word Count: 750
• Approx Pages: 3

Greatness came with a strong nation and thousands of poems and stories that shaped our nation. ... Poe was the master of criticism - he developed his own theory on the mechanics of composition (short story and poetry), he confronted the dark side of human behavior, and what scares humans to insanity. ... (The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe) As a short-story writer, Poe was a fascinating man of imagination. In theme, Poe places the human mind under investigation and probes insanity beneath the surface of normal existence. He was the first author in American literature to make th...

• Word Count: 902
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

He lifted his nose inhaling the scents deeply. Diesel fumes, car exhaust, and filth. The man wrinkled his nose in disgust. "How do these filthy people stand it?" He murmured to himself as he walked down the street. Not caring to step aside to remove himself from many people's chosen path he jostle...

• Word Count: 765
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

From her point of view, you watch her rapidly descend farther into that insanity, her main focus being the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom. ... The main character never really seems all right in this story. ... That's just terrific, and I appreciate the thought and imagination the author had to have, to have written a short story like this. I still wonder though, what the husband was doing to cause his wife's insanity. ... Anyway, the point is, I don't think the story was all about the woman's insanity, but rather the mysterious reason as to WHY she was losing her mind...

• Word Count: 875
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The woman portrayed in this short story plays the role of a dominated, inferior lady who is not outspoken and willing to take a stand on behalf of her own well being. ... This is her giving up on her husband's help and giving into her own insanity. ... The story, in effect, is what is in her mind. ... Letting another control your actions despite your personal thoughts and feelings will only lead to an internal struggle, possible even insanity that deals with yellow wallpaper. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, illustrates this idea beautifully in her short story while also showing how...

• Word Count: 684
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The Yellow Wallpaper: How The Power of Insanity Frees The Soul In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman, the young wife seems to become a victim of her society's attitude towards women. ... The story takes place in New England during the late 1800's. ... Throughout the story the young wife ask her husband John to stay with her, or even if she can accompany him when he goes to work. ... Although the young wife in Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" appears to be a victim of her society's attitude towards women, it seems that by giving into her ins...

• Word Count: 830
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is a story about a new mother suffering from a temporary nervous depression. ... During their three month stay at the house the narrator becomes increasingly depressed and eventually slips into insanity. In this story, Gilman uses symbolism to reveal some themes associated with "The Yellow Wallpaper.... It presented the idea that the oppression of women caused by their Victorian gender roles, is what bred insanity. The yellow wallpaper also symbolically suggested that the suffocation of creativity and intel...

• Word Count: 1068
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

" The article was published in Studies in Short Fiction, Winter94, volume 31, issue 1. ... One of the major points of this article is the insanity that is caused by surveillance. ... In the end, being a prisoner does not drive her to insanity and is actually bearable. ... Lastly, Bak makes an interesting analysis of the ending of the story. ... I loved the way Bak compared this story to the actual psychology of prisoners. ...

• Word Count: 515
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In the beginning he was introduced as a poet then he became a famous short story writer of the uncanny, but he kept writing poems. ... After reading some of his short stories and his biography I found his characters more interesting and I decided to write my paper on a few of them. In my paper I will focus on some of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories to analyze the perfect combination of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and his characters. The protagonists of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories are the main attractions for the readers. ... The unnamed narrators of the "The Tell-Tale H...

• Word Count: 2343
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

You also may see it as foolishness or stupidity; whichever way you do madness is viewed by many as insanity. ... For others, insanity is seen as someone who has "gone mad." ... Out of all the characters, Ophelia and Hamlet can mainly be portrayed as the ones going mad throughout the story. ... Hamlets first real action of madness happens when the actors come to the castle and put on a short act. ... Ophelia's madness is more emotion than anything along with some insanity as well. ...

• Word Count: 719
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In the short story "A Rose for Emily," (1930) William Faulkner presents Miss Emily's instable state of mind through a missed sequence of events. ... The story is split into five sections. ... The insanity of Miss Emily's great aunt, old lady Wyatt, suggests that Miss Emily's craziness may be passed on from her family line. By informing the reader about old lady Wyatt's insanity, Faulkner foreshadows Miss Emily's own madness. ... William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" uses many literary devices such as plot to emphasize the theme of mixed memory. ...

• Word Count: 1163
• Approx Pages: 5

Edgar Allen Poe and Alfred Hitchcock have insane characters in their stories. ... William Wilson appears what society deems "normal" in the beginning of the short story. ... The story goes on to describe the normal life of any boy away at school. ... It is this lack of morality and guilt that reveals Bruno's insanity. ... It is their reasons and motives that provoked the killings that define their insanity. ...

• Word Count: 1658
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Short Story Essay The Anguish of Miss Emily Grierson The anguish of a southern lady who lives a strange and unhappy life was written by William Faulkner in a short story entitled "A Rose for Emily". Faulkner sets the story during the 1930's with the death of Miss Emily Grierson, who is the protagonist, in a small southern town named Jefferson. ... This incident shows her insanity because the Colonel has been dead almost ten years now. ... Miss Emily's father is mostly responsible for her becoming a refuge in her own world, which leads to her insanity. ...

• Word Count: 630
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The two short stories, "The Story of an Hour" and "The Yellow Wallpaper", demonstrate important ideas regarding 19th century marriage. ... Kate Chopin's piece of short fiction, "The Story of an Hour", is about the protagonist, Mrs. ... However, as the story progresses, the reader learns of her true feelings. ... These short stories demonstrated how powerless women were in marriages during the 19th century. ... And it is this feeling of neglect and unhappiness that drives a woman to insanity and even death. ...

• Word Count: 509
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Some of the most striking similarities can be found between "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", two short stories that divulge the inner workings of a perverse mind. First, The plot of these stories is similar in many ways. ... In "Heart", the narrator suffered from insanity and the obvious obsessive disorder. ... Denying his insanity, the narrator from "Heart" is very similar to the man in "The Black Cat", which denies his belief in the superstition of black cats. ... As in most Poe stories, biting and mutilation appear in both. ...

• Word Count: 932
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Poe's stories of death and decay can be seen in much of his work including "The Black Cat, " and "The Fall of the House of Usher. " In both of these stories, the main characters and settings are similar in the way that they both are telling of diseases eating away at the person; however, one disease is physically eating away at a family, and the other is a disease of insanity. ... Twice near the end of the story, Roderick calls the narrator "Madman! ... In "The Black Cat " the events that take place are unmistakably the ramblings of a madman who cannot seem to control his actions and keep...

• Word Count: 948
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allen Poe In his short story "The Fall of the House of Usher", Edgar Allen Poe presents an elaborated plot filled with a prophetic sense of destruction. ... All of them suffer from insanity, yet each responds differently. ... Both of them tell a story within a story. ... Fear can restrain us from actions that could be beneficial, and excessive fear can lead to insanity. ... All Roderick wanted was to be free from the "Daemon of Death", and only death would free him from his insanity and the confines of his house. ...

• Word Count: 1091
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School