Within the human psyche there is a small and sometimes undefined line between what drives us to do good and that which pushes towards corruption. The battle to maintain balance between the two is the theme of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘’The Tell-Tale Heart.’’ For sane individuals it requires a traumatic or life altering event to push them across the line, however for the insane it can be a very inconsequential event that drives them …showed first 75 words of 676 total…

…showed last 75 words of 676 total…the noise of the beating heart was that of his own, not the old man. Edgar Allan Poe’s use of the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,’’ serves to make us aware that although this story is told from the first person point-of-view, we can’t always trust what he tells us. The narrator’s irrational actions towards the old man exemplify the line that is drawn between what is good and what is corrupt.