The Narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart
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 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 narrator wrestles with conflicting feelings of responsibility to the old man and feelings of ridding his life of the man's "Evil Eye" (34). Although afflicted with overriding fear and derangement, the narrator still acts with quasi-allegiance toward the old man; however, his kindness may stem more from protecting himself from suspicion of watching the old man every night than from genuine compassion for the old man.
In life, many people strive to find a person that is reliable and to separate the people that are unreliable. Unreliable can be defined as an adjective meaning not dependable. Having read through the short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “Strawberry Spring” by Stephen King, it is reasonable to conclude that each of these stories has its own unreliable narrator. The most unreliable narrator, however, is the narrator/killer Springheel Jack from “Strawberry Spring” by Stephen King due to the narrator’s cognition problems and the violent nature of the murders.
The pupil is where light can enter the eye. The iris is in control of the amount of light that actually goes through. The light reaches the lens, which alters the shape of it so the eye can focus on it. Light reaches the retina, which consists of cones and rods. Colors are saw differently based on their implied meanings, which to various psychological functions. The cones are responsible for color. The color red would have such an effect on people’s perception of others based on their production of affect, behavior and cognition. A sociocultural theorist would explain this effect by indicating that the associations with the color red are normal. When a student sees a plethora of red marks on their paper, they automatically think they failed the assignment. Biological theorist would best explain this theory by saying the color red helps them survive or reproduce. A man may be attracted to a woman more because she is wearing red. This attractiveness could cause him to find his mate and eventually reproduce. A behavioral theorist would explain this effect by saying the color red provokes pleasure and avoids pain. A person can associate red with romance and
The structures of the monkey eye retina include adipose, sclera, ciliary body, pigment epithelium, photoreceptor layer, cell bodies of rods and cones, outer plexiform layer, inner nuclear layer, inner plexiform layer, ganglion cell layer, optic nerve fibers, inner limiting membrane, and the vitreous body.
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 mouse eyes were significant in that they provided results that can be compared with the data obtained from the frogs. These frog and mouse eyes were studied using X-ray diffraction. The changes regarding light induced reflections were recorded at 0.1seconds and 1.0 seconds in frog and mouse cells. (Chabre and Cavaggioni, 1973). The diffraction of disk membranes was measured to the 10th order to maintain specificity and detailed differences between mammalian and amphibian rod outer segments. For the experiment, a bullfrog ( Rana catesbeiana) eye was used and the frogs were in an environment that provided 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark at a constant temperature of 8 degrees celsius for one to four weeks. A frog from the group was killed and the head was cut along the middle so that both eyes could be further studied. For the mouse eyes, BALB/C mice also maintained under the same conditions as the frogs were used. However, the eyes from the mice were removed from the sockets by cutting the optical nerve and tissues whereas the eyes on the frog remained intact. A similar X-ray analysis was used for both specimen and involved a beam passing from the back of the eye to the side where the light illuminates the eye from the front. (Corless 1972). A
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.
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.
After reading the essay, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, by Edgar Allan Poe, I find that the narrator is unreliable. The narrator was unreliable because while reading the essay it makes the reader think that everything being said is actually happening. But, if you sit back and actually think about what you’re reading, you would see how many things stated are impossible. A perfect example of what I mean by impossible comes down to one of the statements, “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.” Now could a person really hear things from heaven, earth or even hell? No. Also, to some people heaven, earth and hell doesn’t even exist.
The narrator states that one of the old man's eyes was a pale blue color with a film over it, which resembled the eye of a vulture. Just the sight of that eye made the narrator's blood run cold, and as a result, the eye (and with it the old man) must be destroyed.
“Villains! Dissemble no more! I admit the deed!-tear up the planks-here. Here!- It is the beating of his hideous heart!” The narrator thinks he hears the beating heart, but it is all in his head. In the story, The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator kills an old man because he is afraid of the old man’s eye. The police suspect nothing, until the narrator believes he hears the beating of the dead man’s heart, and admits the crime. The narrator thought killing the old man was the right thing to do, and he kept trying to convince the reader that he was sane. Without a doubt, the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart is insane, and should be punished accordingly.
The iris is the pigmented part of the eye that is responsible for giving eyes their color. Its main function is to control the amount of light that reaches the retina. This is done by changing the size or the pupils by contracting the sphincter pupillae which contracts the pupil or contracting the dilator pupillae which pull the iris enlarge the pupil.
The narrator in the tell tale heart is an unreliable source of information, he is a mad man that is in denial of his madness and believes all actions he takes are justified and reasonable, throughout the story the narrator states that he is not crazy and reasons why, as if he was trying to convince himself along with the readers of the story. the narrator is obviously crazy and in denial and used the old man’s eye for an excuse to himself to justify why he must kill the old man that he may want to kill for reasons that are unknown. behavior he exhibits when police arrived is also an example of his madness and his need to justify everything that he does.
Everything is connected in some way. When one universe blinks out of existence, another begins to form. When a living thing dies it’s energy or life force is released and another being, or two or three, is born. The Multiverse is a never ending cycle of constant rebirth. Each universe is connected, and once in a great while, an opening allows something to squeeze through to another universe.
It is in human nature to want to figure out the unknown, because the unknown is intriguing yet frightening. If we cannot have the answer, the curiosity of it eats away at us inside. We yearn for answers in order to somehow be fulfilled. Some answers, even if they are far from the truth, satisfy certain people because it seems logical to the way they think. Other answers create ideas which may be possible. However, these ideas are theoretical and philosophical in nature. Theoretical and philosophical ideas expanding from theories like SpaceTime seem very difficult, if not impossible, to come up with. Even so, to prove that it is indeed possible, this section of the paper will provide branching philosophical ideas coming from SpaceTime, String Theory, and Multiverse Theory.
In addition, he offers his tranquility in the entire narration as proof that he is sane. Furthermore, he explains how he could not stand the sight of a particular old man's filmy and pale eyes. The narrator claims that although the old man never desired his money and had never wronged him, his eyes that conjure the vulture, made him decide to get rid of the old man's eyes so that he could never have to see it. The narrator murders the old man in his room at night. Thereafter, police responded to the call of a neighbor who suspected foul play at the old man’s place.