More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
The theme of the tell-tale heart
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
How can one prove that he is mentally stable? In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell Tale Heart”, the narrator in the story explains how he was calm and sane the days before he rid himself of the vulture eye. “The Tell Tale Heart” is a story of an unnamed man who planned to kill the old man with the vulture eye. Night after night, the narrator would carefully make his way into the old man’s room to ensure he did not wake him, and look at the man’s vulture eye. On the eighth night, the narrator was successful in killing the man and left no evidence of the murder. The narrator now feels happy that he no longer has to endure the vulture eye. However, in the story, it is portrayed the dead man’s heart continued to beat, which began to incapacitate the narrator’s mental state. “The Tell Tale Heart” illustrates how the narrator’s nervousness drove him insane. The narrator had mixed emotions towards the old man. The narrator stated that he loved the old man and did not want his money (Poe, 1). He began to say that he had never been mean to the man up to the man’s death. Why would he want to kill his love one and receive no type of compensation for his death? He said, “I made up his mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (p. 1). As the narrator continued to prove the case that he was sane, he began to explain the nights leading up to him accomplishing his goal of getting rid of the vulture eye. Readers can interpret that the old man has a disease in order to have a discoloration in only one eye. Now, the time was coming for the narrator to strike his victim. We soon learn that the narrator heartlessly kill the old man. The narrator had already planned the murder of the old man. Before the murd... ... middle of paper ... ...ed! – tear up the planks! here, here! – it is the beating of his hideous heart!’ shouted the narrator (p. 5). What the narrator mistaken for the beating heart of the old man was actually sounds in his mind, the guilt of killing the old man, possibly, caused the narrator to go irrational (p. 3-5). The heart told the tale of the murder. He was positive that he successfully got away with murder. The narrator no longer had to endure the agony of the vulture eye, but there was a new problem. The mystery of the old man’s beating heart gave the narrator the ideal that the police officers, also, knew of the horrific slaying. As the heartbeats grew louder, the narrator could no longer bare the sound of the heat. Yet, the sound the narrator heard was not real. It was all in his head. The narrator’s judgments to demonstrate he was sane proved that his was mentally unstable.
After the old man is dead and under the floorboards the police arrive, and the narrator remains calm and his "manor had convinced them.?Villains!" "Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- Here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!" The narrator of "The Tell Tale Heart" shows that he is unreliable. Concluding the questioning by the police, the narrator had a sudden fear and assumed that the policemen have heard the old man?s heart beat. Not only the narrator could hear the old man?s heart beating, but it is assumed (from the audience perspective) that the police could hear the narrator?s heart beating. The narrator listening to the old man?s heart beat is a replacement of his own consciousness that brought out the guiltiness for murdering the old man.
How can we justify if a man is insane or sane? A man may talk like a wise man, and yet act as if he is paranoid. A man with such manner cannot imply insane to us, we can only anticipate he is sane. In this case, the insane man attempted to persuade the reader that he was normal. However, several pieces of evidence indicated his insanity. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator is insane because he has a serious illness, he cannot tell fantasy from reality, and he hallucinates. By examining his behaviour and mind, I will analyze his insanity comprehensively.
Firstly, at the end of this story, the narrator’s illusions are the most powerful pieces of evidence for his madness. It is his two illusions that betrays him and imposed him to confess the crime. His first illusion is the beating of the old man’s heart which actually did not exist. Initialy, exactly as he portrayed "My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears, it continued and became more distinct", the ringing he heard haunted him ceaselessly. Then he "found that the noise was not within his ear", and thought the fancy in his ear was the beating of old man’s heart. Because of the increasing noise, he thought the officers must hear it, too. However, in fact, everything he heard is absurd and illusive. And it proves that the narrator is really insane. Next, his second illusion is the officers’ "hypocritical smiles" which pushed him to completely be out of control. Losting of his mind, he called the officer "Villains". Apparently, he was confused and falsely thought "they were making a mockery of his horror" which irritated him intensively. Consequently, he told all the truth and "admitted the deed" in order to get rid of the growing noise. Therefore, the above two pieces of evidence both reveal the truth that the narrator is absolutely insane in contrary to what the narrator tried to tell us.
He describes with great details, so you can imagine the whole setting in the story and what happens in the story. The author describes what is happening by stating, “It was open-wide,wide open-and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness-all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person, for I had directed the ray, as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.” (Poe,357) In this part of the story you can see that the author describes how the narrator can see the blue eye of the old man , and thinks the eye is evil and bad. The narrator has a plan figured out to get rid of the eye. This creates suspense by letting the reader know in detail what the narrator sees and what he is about to
Is the narrator of “The Tell Tale Heart” sane or insane? “Sanity: a sound of mind; not mad or mentally ill (Webster Dictionary pg. 862).” In the short story, “The Tell Tale Heart.” the narrator tries to convince the audience that he is sane; he says “... but why will you say that I am mad (Poe pg. 202).” I believe that the narrator is sane. He tries to prove that he is sane throughout the entire short story that he is not mad. For example, he was very wary during the seven days that he stalked the old man, he felt an intense amount of guilt, and that he made this brilliant plan of murder.
Students, past and present, around the country have been tantalized and mystified by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe has dazzled readers form around the world with his mesmerizing words and unrivaled characters with their unique qualities and perversions. It is one of these thought provoking, yet peculiar, characters that leads readers to endless debate. The narrator from “The Tell Tale Heart,” is one of those characters who keeps readers on their toes and arouses their curiosity. After one reads the perplexing short story, the reader is left wondering if the narrator is sane or insane. Although there is considerable information to support both sides of this intriguing argument, it is the defined diagnosis of the psychopath and law definition that qualifies an individual as insane that contributes to tipping the argument more favorably to one side. The narrator implores us to believe that he is, in fact, “not mad” but his actions seemingly contradict
The narrator's strict refusal to acknowledge this clearly reveals the unsolved problem at the real heart of the tale. It is probable that the heartbeat that the narrator hears all around him in the outside world, is in fact the beating of his very own heart. Thus, he projects internal struggles out into the world that is around him. He kills the old man, screams at the policemen, and begs for the heartbeat...
I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. ” Poe seduces the reader with the narrator’s eerie implication of his sanity. The author allows the reader to recognize the raconteur’s ability to rationally confess his behavior as sane.
Julian Symons suggests that the murder of the old man is motiveless, and unconnected with passion or profit (212). But in a deeper sense, the murder does have a purpose: to ensure that the narrator does not have to endure the haunting of the Evil Eye any longer. To a madman, this is as good of a reason as any; in the mind of a madman, reason does not always win out over emotion.
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is one of the most successful fables ever written. It took off its most fantastic details regarding the murdered man 's vulture like eye, and the long drawn out detail concerning the murderer 's slow entrance into his victim 's room, the story stays at an unforgettable recording of the guilty conscience of the man 's voice.
In each person lies a beating heart tattooing their lives to the insides of their rib cages. Each beat bringing them closer to the inevitable. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” readers listen to the raging heartbeat of the elusive main character that sets out to murder the old man living in his house. Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” certainly conveys the narrator’s identification with the old man, and illustrates the narrator’s ultimate self destruction; however, Poe most effectively presents the narrator’s obsession with the eye of the old man.
The behavior of the narrator in The Tell-Tale heart demonstrate characteristic that are associated with people with obsessive-compulsive disorder and paranoid schizophrenia . When Poe wrote this story in 1843 obsessive-compulsive disorder and paranoia had not been discovered. However in modern times the characteristics demonstrated by the narrator leads people to believe that he has a mental illness. Poe’s narrator demonstrates classic signs throughout the story leading the reader to believe that this character is mad
Darynda Jones once said “Don’t judge me because I’m quiet. No one plans a murder out loud.” In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator was a caretaker of an old man who had an evil eye. His eye tempted the narrator to kill the old man for the satisfaction of the eye being gone and not stalking him. The caretaker was an unreliable character because he was paranoid, unstable, and delusional.
The fixation on the old man's vulture-like eye forces the narrator to concoct a plan to eliminate the old man. The narrator confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye: "Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - very gradually - I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever" (34). The narrator begins his tale of betrayal by trying to convince the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the narrator indeed is out of control. The fact that the old man's eye is the only motivation to murder proves the narrator is so mentally unstable that he must search for justification to kill. In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye.
The noise grew louder and he eventually yelled and told the cops where to find the body and what he had done to the old man. In the end it was his own madness that gave him away. The same beating heart that caused him to kill the man, caused him to confess to the murder. “"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! Here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!"(Poe 5)