This paper examines the role of sound and music in portraying madness across two works: the television series American Horror Story: Asylum and Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart." The paper analyzes how the recurring song "Dominique" functions as both a story-supporting and story-telling device within the asylum setting, reinforcing themes of control, religious authority, and psychological breakdown. It also considers how the use of repetition and imagined sound in Poe's narrative establishes the narrator's descent into insanity. Together, these examples illustrate how sound — whether in film, television, or literature — powerfully shapes an audience's understanding of mental instability.
Sound has been an important aspect of the performing arts even when films were still silent. Often the music played during a screening formed an important component of how audiences experienced a film. Indeed, this is still true today. Music and sound effects in film and television contribute far more to what an audience gains from the art form than we may realize. While sound effects are less immediate in books, they are nevertheless important in literature as well. To consider these ideas, sound in the television series American Horror Story: Asylum is discussed, followed by a brief analysis of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe.
American Horror Story: Asylum has madness as its central theme, set against the religious backdrop of a church-owned asylum for the mentally disturbed. Music plays a significant role in the questions the series poses about the nature of sanity and insanity, as well as the role of religion in both. According to Dakic (n.d., p. 3), music can play either a story-telling or a story-supporting role.
Perhaps most symbolic of the madness theme is the song "Dominique," played on repeat in the daily living quarters of the Briarcliff inmates. This particular song is story-supporting in its symbolism of the often repetitive nature of madness. Rather than soothing the inmates — as was probably Sister Jude's intention — it reinforces the rampant suffering already experienced by most of them. One sad creature is shown repetitively bumping his head against the wall, a visual echo of the song's relentless loop.
The song "Dominique" is also symbolic of control and its loss. Every inmate knows that attempting to stop the recording would result in severe punishment. In this way, Sister Jude establishes and maintains her iron control over Briarcliff and those within its walls. When the devil possesses Sister Mary Eunice, however, she establishes her own brand of control by breaking Sister Jude's record of the song and installing a jukebox instead. In this way, the secular replaces the religious — "Dominique" being a song by a former nun about a religious saint. Interestingly, it is also this jukebox that serves a story-telling function when Sister Jude sings "The Name Game."
"'The Name Game' narrates Jude's descent"
"Imagined heartbeat confirms narrator's insanity"
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