Caroline Bielski

Period 7

Quarter 1 Argumentative Paper

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream. -Edgar Allen Poe. This
quote about perception shows the reader that everything may not be what it seems to
be. In The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe the narrator starts to become obsessed
with an eye that haunts him in his sleep which shows how removed from reality he is.
Mr. White from the Monkeys Paw by W.W. Jacobs is also removed from society
because he becomes so afraid yet curious about the paw that he ends up wishing for
something and his son ends up dead.The narrator from the Tell Tale Heart is more
removed from reality than Mr. White from the Monkeys Paw because the narrator in the
Tell Tale heart killed someone over an eye that haunted him.
The narrator from the Tell Tale Heart is most removed from reality because he
had become so obsessed with the eye that he killed the man who hed thought the eye
belonged to. In paragraph one the text states, TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully
nervous I had been and am;but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had
sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of
hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in
hell. How, then, am I mad? This shows he was most removed from reality because he
was denying the fact he was insane because of an illness.
Another example of how the narrator from the tell tale heart is most removed
from reality is because he laughs and smiles at the bad deeds he has done. In the Tell
Tale Heart paragraph twelve the text says, I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far

done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did
not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was
dead. This proves that the narrator from the Tell Tale Heart was the most removed from
reality because he is happy about killing the old man who allegedly was the eye that
haunted him at night. This also shows that he was so obsessed with the eye that he had
to kill someone because it troubled him so much.
Another person who is removed from reality is Mr. White from the monkeys paw.
On page 261 the text states, go down and get it quickly and wish our boy alive again.
This shows that he is removed from reality because he is so crazy that he wants to
resurrect his son from the dead.
The reason why the narrator is most removed from reality is because he was so
obsessed over the eye that haunted him every night that he hunted down the man who
he thought the eye belonged to. The man from the monkeys paw however was not as
removed as the narrator because he did not kill a man out of obsession and insanity.
In conclusion, the narrator from the Tell Tale Heart is much more removed from
society than Mr. White from the Monkeys Paw.

Works Cited:
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Kathleen A. Hinchman, David G. O'Brien,
Taffy Raphael, and Cynthia Hynd. Shanahan. "The Monkey's Paw." Glencoe Literature.
New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. N. pag. Print.
"Home." Actively Learn. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.