Poe writes, "And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? --now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage." (Poe 729)
In Edgar Allan Poe's writing you can see madness everywhere. Reading the paragraph above shows that the man in Poe's story is completely insane. The man tries to cover up his insanity by convincing himself and the readers that he is not crazy. The fact that he tries to do that and tells us that it is a over-acuteness of the senses proves he has lost his mind. This man hears the quick, dull, low sound that he says he knows well. How can you know a heart beat well? The lune the man is would have to of listened to the heart of the old man over and over again while it was still alive to know that you can hear it still beating. The beating of the dead heart as if a watch shows Poe's theme of clocks with in his works and how the heart "continues on" after being dead as time will if a watch is to stop. The very sound that gives person life torments the man to have enraged fury as if a large drum encourages a solider. The emphasis on the repetitive sound shows the unbelievable comparison back to the haunting beat of the old mans heart. The man will never be the same even if he is away from the old mans heart. The beating will continue just as time will . Thump...Thump!!
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell-Tale Heart" 1843. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 727-731. Print.
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