“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is a first-person narrative short story that features a disguised-cum-mysterious narrator. The narrator does not reveal any interest while proving his innocence regarding the murder of the old man. Moreover, he makes us believe that he is in full control of his mind but yet suffering from a disease that causes him over acuteness of the senses. As we go through the story, we can find his obsession in proving his sanity. The narrator lives with an old man, who has a clouded, pale blue, vulture-like eye that makes him so vulnerable that he kills the old man. He confesses that there was no interest, no passion whatsoever in killing the old man, whom he loved. Throughout the story, the narrator directs us towards how he courageously ends up committing a horrifying murder and dismembering the corpse into pieces. Consequently, we can behold that the conventional definition of ‘irony’ is met; he tries to convince the readers about his fully sane state of mind but in turn, ends up exposing his utmost insanity. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” who claims to be sane is in fact trying to get away with the punishment for the crime that he readily admits by faking insanity through ironic means.
Edgar Allan Poe, the writer himself is the one who establishes the irony in this story, not the narrator because the latter seems to be completely insensible about the ironic component of his monologue. The convention critical analysis of "The Tell-Tale Heart" might engage the story from the point of view that the narrator's attempt to prove his sanity might be an exercise in irony. Irony, in today’s world, can be easily misinterpreted by most of us because we tend to get confused with it taking it like not...
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Works Cited
Baraban, Elena V. “The Motive for Murder in "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 58.2 (2004): 47-62
Gargano, James W. ‘‘The Theme of Time in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’’’ Studies in Short Fiction 5.4 (1967): 378-382.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Anthology of American Literature. Ed. McMichael, George, et al. New Jersey, 2007
Tresch, John. “The Potent magic of Verisimilitude: Edgar Allan Poe within the Mechanical Age” The British Journal for the History of Science 30.3 (1997): 257-290
Tucker, B.D. “The Tell Tale Heart” and the “Evil Eye”. The Southern Literary Journal 13.2 (1981):92-98. University of North Carolina Press
Cleman, John. “Irresistible Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense”. American Literature 63.4 (1991): 623-640. Duke University Press
The “Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and serves as a testament to Poe’s ability to convey mental disability in an entertaining way. The story revolves around the unnamed narrator and old man, and the narrator’s desire to kill the old man for reasons that seem unexplainable and insane. After taking a more critical approach, it is evident that Poe’s story is a psychological tale of inner turmoil.
May, Charles E. "The Tell-Tale Heart: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 7 Dec. 2010.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell-Tale Heart." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 33-37.
Poe, Edgar A. “The Tell-Tale Heart”. American Literature: Volume One. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Pearson, 2004. 809-813. Print
Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart" is a short story about how a murderer's conscience overtakes him and whether the narrator is insane or if he suffers from over acuteness of the senses. Poe suggests the narrator is insane by the narrator's claims of sanity, the narrator's actions bring out the narrative irony of the story, and the narrator is insane according to the definition of insanity as it applies to "The Tell Tale Heart". First, Poe suggests the narrator is insane by his assertions of sanity. For example, the narrator declares that he planned the murder so expertly he could not be insane. He says, "Now this is the point.
Like many of Poe's other works, the Tell-Tale Heart is a dark story. This particular one focuses on the events leading the death of an old man, and the events afterwards. That's the basics of it, but there are many deep meanings hidden in the three page short story. Poe uses techniques such as first person narrative, irony and style to pull off a believable sense of paranoia.
The. 15 March 2014. http://xroads.virginia.edu/drbr/wf_rose.html> Poe, Edgar Allan. The "Tell-Tale Heart." Skwire, David and Harvey S. Wiener.
Poe endured more than any individual should endure, and experienced so much negativity it was almost inevitable that the theme of insanity would appear in his works. He suffered from an excessive amount of hardships and tragedies throughout his life that placed him on the brink of insanity. The first sign of Poe’s insanity is found in his short story “The Black Cat” where the narrator claims “mad [he] is not”. Present in the state of denial, Poe’s character will say or do anything to relinquish the claim of ...
Symbolism and Irony in The Tell-Tale Heart. In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the author combines vivid symbolism with subtle irony. Although the story runs only four pages, within those few pages many examples of symbolism and irony abound. In short, the symbolism and irony lead to an enormously improved story as compared to a story with the same plot but with these two elements missing. "
Poe writes “The Tell Tale Heart” from the perspective of the murderer of the old man. When an author creates a situation where the central character tells his own account, the overall impact of the story is heightened. The narrator, in this story, adds to the overall effect of horror by continually stressing to the reader that he or she is not mad, and tries to convince us of that fact by how carefully this brutal crime was planned and executed. The point of view helps communicate that the theme is madness to the audience because from the beginning the narrator uses repetition, onomatopoeias, similes, hyperboles, metaphors and irony.
Yet, there are two overwhelming explanations behind trusting that Poe 's motivation in "The Tell-Tale Heart" goes past the blend of ghastliness and confusion. Above all else, he has shrewdly muddled his story by making the storyteller 's portrayal of himself and his activities seem inconsistent. Incidentally, the hero endeavors to demonstrate in dialect that is wild and cluttered that he is deliberate, quiet, and
“The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe.” University of Virginia, n.d. Web. 27 March, 2014.
Through the first person narrator, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" illustrates how man's imagination is capable of being so vivid that it profoundly affects people's lives. The manifestation of the narrator's imagination unconsciously plants seeds in his mind, and those seeds grow into an unmanageable situation for which there is no room for reason and which culminates in murder. The narrator takes care of an old man with whom the relationship is unclear, although the narrator's comment of "For his gold I had no desire" (Poe 34) lends itself to the fact that the old man may be a family member whose death would monetarily benefit the narrator. Moreover, the narrator also intimates a caring relationship when he says, "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult" (34). The narrator's obsession with the old man's eye culminates in his own undoing as he is engulfed with internal conflict and his own transformation from confidence to guilt.
The characters in The Tell-Tale Heart are complex, interesting, and elaborate. Although much is not known about them, they each have minor details that make them stand out. Whether it be the old man’s eye, or the narrators growing insanity.
The Tell Tale Heart is a story, on the most basic level, of conflict. There is a mental conflict within the narrator himself (assuming the narrator is male). Through obvious clues and statements, Poe alerts the reader to the mental state of the narrator, which is insanity. The insanity is described as an obsession (with the old man's eye), which in turn leads to loss of control and eventually results in violence. Ultimately, the narrator tells his story of killing his housemate. Although the narrator seems to be blatantly insane, and thinks he has freedom from guilt, the feeling of guilt over the murder is too overwhelming to bear. The narrator cannot tolerate it and eventually confesses his supposed 'perfect'; crime. People tend to think that insane persons are beyond the normal realm of reason shared by those who are in their right mind. This is not so; guilt is an emotion shared by all humans. The most demented individuals are not above the feeling of guilt and the havoc it causes to the psyche. Poe's use of setting, character, and language reveal that even an insane person feels guilt. Therein lies the theme to The Tell Tale Heart: The emotion of guilt easily, if not eventually, crashes through the seemingly unbreakable walls of insanity.