The Tell-Tale Heart Argumentative Essay

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Murder, a dark and heinous act, loiters within the capabilities of any human being in the world. In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, this grim reality was explored vividly through a narrator’s point of view, who’s gender is undetermined while being driven to commit the act. Despite justifiable arguments that the murderer was a woman, the narrator who committed the egregious act of murder was a male due to the strength he possessed to bear the gruesome nature of his actions and the manner in which he conducted himself when confronted by male police officers. Initially, the narrator cautiously waited outside the door for the old man’s eye to open as he lay in his bed. Upon the opening of the old man’s eye on the eighth night, the narrator stealthily attacked the old man and covered him with his own bed, …show more content…

Not being helped to move the chairs by the police officers suggests that the narrator was a man, as male police officers would help a woman in moving those chairs instead of plainly watching. Additionally, the narrator informs the audience about how the male police officers “...sat, and while [he] answered cheerily, they chatted about familiar things” (16). One can plausibly deduce that the narrator is a male as a consequence of the male police officers talking to the narrator about things that are familiar. Generally, individuals of the same gender tend to find common things to chat about. The actions of the narrator and police officers in close proximity of each other offer significant insight into the gender of the narrator moments prior to the confession or murder. Opposing views claim that the narrator may be a woman by stating when the narrator spoke about the sound “...[welling] up from [the narrator’s] own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo the terrors that distracted [the narrator]” (7) and used the word

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