In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “I felt

a Funeral, in my Brain”, both of the authors use repetition, feelings, and specific phrases to
develop the central idea of insanity.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “I felt
a Funeral, in my Brain”, both of the authors use feelings to develop the central idea of insanity.
In the text “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the author states that he “...went down to open it with a light
heart,-- for what had I to fear?...I smiled.”, when he went to open the door and greet the police.
This feeling of sadism shows the narrator is insane as it shows how he enjoys the thought of
getting away with murder and has even perceived murder as morally right when an average
person in a moral state of mind wouldn’t, showing his insanity. In the poem “I felt a Funeral, in
my Brain”, the narrator states that he/she felt “A Service, like a Drum-/kept beating- beating -
till I thought/My mind was going numb-” (lines 6-8). The narrator keeps feeling an constant
intense beating or throbbing in her head, which hurt to the point where he/she even said that
their mind was going numb because of it. This feeling of a drum beating shows insanity as the
narrator cannot literally have a drum beat causing the pain in their head, which is an abnormal
perception as not every sane person would say a drum in their head is hurting them. Therefore,
both Dickinson and Poe use the narrator's feelings to develop the idea of insanity in their texts.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “I felt
a Funeral, in my Brain”, both of the authors use repetition to develop the central idea of insanity​.
The narrator of “Tell-Tale Heart” throughout the text repeats “The eye” in his dialogue. This
repetition reveals that the narrator is constantly thinking about the old man’s eye. This
repetition develops the central idea of insanity because the narrator is persistently thinking
about removing the old man’s “hideous” eye to a point where it altered his mental state and he
disregarded his love for the man and willingly committed murder to satisfy his thoughts of
disgust. In the poem “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson, the narrator repeats the
phrase “beating- beating” in the quote “A Service, like a Drum-/kept beating- beating - till I
thought/My mind was going numb-” (lines 6-8). The repetition of “beating” develops insanity as
it shows how she is imagining a drum, which cannot scientifically exist in his/her brain, and how
she continually hears the drums beating despite the drum itself not actually existing, showing
abnormal perception. As one can see, both Dickinson and Poe use the narrator's repetition to
develop the idea of insanity in their texts.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “I felt
a Funeral, in my Brain”, both of the authors use specific phrases to develop the central idea of
insanity​.​ The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” once directed his attention toward the readers in
order to say “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded-- with what caution-- with what
dissimulation I went to work!”. This phrase develops the idea of insanity as it portrays the
narrator bragging about the hideous deed he committed when a sane person would of felt
extreme guilt for taking the life of a innocent person, showing how the narrator abnormally
perceives this deed as morally correct. This similarity is shown when the narrator of “I felt a
Funeral, in my Brain” states “And then a Plank in Reason, broke./ And I dropped down…” (lines
17-18). This quote shows insanity as the narrator is literally stating that the wooden board
holding her/his logic and sanity has broke, sending her/him into the depths of darkness and
insanity. To further add, the wooden board itself does not physically exist and it is not
scientifically possible for oneself’s reasoning to fall, further showing the change in perception
from being sane to insane. In conclusion, both Dickinson and Poe use the narrator's specific
word phrases to develop the idea of insanity in their texts.