Tell-Tale Heart, "The Cask of Thesis

The only exception here is "The Black Cat" narrator who initially is very sympathetic and then becomes increasingly insane as he indulges in alcohol. His wife is extremely sympathetic and likeable, and so, he murders her, as if to punctuate the fact that he is insane. A woman in the stories might have detracted from the central themes of madness, murder, and mayhem, but each characters is lonely (even "The Black Cat" narrator who stays away from home on a regular basis), and so, they are compelled toward evil instead of compelled toward goodness and family.

In conclusion, all of these stories share a first-person narrator who confesses to a heinous crime by the end of the story. They are all mad or insane, and they all commit a horrible crime and then confess it. One even gets away with it. They all have a subconscious need to tell about what they have done, and somehow be recognized for it, and Poe uses them to show that humankind can be extremely depraved, and quite proud of that depravity, as well.References

Fisher, Benjamin F. "Poe and the Gothic Tradition." The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Hayes, Kevin J., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Magistrale, Tony. Student Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Poe, Edgar Allan.….....