Edgar Allan Poe for whole his life was searching for the beauty and perfection. But instead he suffered from depression and alcoholism. His mother died when Edgar was three, some years later died his beloved foster mother. He married his thirteen-year-old cousin who also died at the age of twenty what lead the poet up to nervous breakdown. His writings seem to be influenced by all these experiences. They are full of violence and brutal murders that may be reflection of his complexes and desires evoked by the lost of dear women. In search for perfection Edgar Allan Poe wanted to go beyond the limits of reality. In his world of imagination the connection between the cause and the effect was fading away. The elements of violence in his writings are ruled by its own interior rights. Satisfaction of own wishes seems to be the only rule. But it happens that the crime is usually punished.
             Both narrators from "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat" open the story by proclaiming that they are not mad. However, they both murder dear persons having no motifs. While the behaviour of the narrator of "The Black Cat" may be attributed to the abuse of alcohol, the behaviour of the second man indicates that he suffers from a mental ilness. Throughout the whole story he obsessively tries to convince the reader that he is not a madman, that he is only very nervous, what has just an opposite effect. He tries to prove it by emphasizing his great hearing and his precise actions.
             Next contradiction involves his feelings for the victim. He wants to kill an old man with whom he lives. The narrator claims to love the old man and at the same time he desires to murder him. He wants to do it just because the old man's vulture-eye he is anxious about. This fact only acknowledges narrator's insanity.
             The narrator of "The Black Cat" tells the story of his life that reveals that his personality has un...