Edgar Allen Poe once said, "Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality." There have been so many breathtaking stories, but none of them have influenced literature the way The Tell Tale Heart has. The Tell Tale Heart is a short story published in 1843 and written by Edgar Allen Poe. Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston in 1809. He was the son of the impoverished actress Elizabeth and David Allen Poe. He became an orphan at the age of three and lost his father to abandonment and his mother to tuberculosis. He moved in with Allan, John and Frances, but his relationship with his adoptive father suffered irreparable damage. Edgar Allen Poe became an alcoholic due to depression, unemployment, and financial difficulties (Meyers 102). He then died in 1949 under unclear circumstances. The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe has several themes, but the obvious theme of the story is madness. The Tell Tale Heart is the story of an unnamed narrator who lived with an old man with one pale, cloudy blue eye. The story begins with the narrator claiming that he is not crazy, yet everything he tells proves that he is crazy. The unknown narrator recounts the events leading up to the murder of an old man. The narrator killed the old man because of his blue eyes. He later explains the logic behind his actions and tries to convince the reader that he killed him because he couldn't stand the sight of the man's evil eye staring at him. The theme of madness is the most important theme in the story The Tell Tale Heart. . At the beginning of the story, Poe writes: “How, then, am I mad? Listen! and see how I can tell you the whole story in a healthy and calm way” (Poe 121). This is when… the middle of the paper… committed murder and it was wrong. The way the protagonist calmly talks about killing the old man clearly shows his madness in the story. The narrator began the story protesting his sanity, but by the end it is evident that he is truly mad due to his actions. Only a crazy person could do what the narrator did, killing an innocent man and even mutilating his body. Edgar Allan Poe uses the narrator to show the theme of madness in his book, The Tell Tale Heart.Works CitedPoe, Edgar Allan. The telltale heart. New York: Bantam Classics, 1983. Print.Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. Cooper Square Press, 1992. Print.Womack, Martha. “The Tell-Tale Heart of Edgar Allan Poe.” Poedecoder.com. N.d. Web. April 24, 2014. Zimmerman, Brett. Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005. Print.