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The tell tale heart by edgar allen poe literature analysis
Description and analysis of Edgar Allan Poe
Description and analysis of Edgar Allan Poe
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In Edgar Allan Poe’s classic work, “The Tell-Tale Heart” we meet an unnamed, gender neutral, narrator who presents a story of madness in the first person. I suspect this ambiguity with gender was purposeful on Poe’s part so as not to allow any preconceived notions about the motives that the narrator may have. For my purposes, I will assume the narrator is male. This narrator lives with an old man whom he claims to have a genuine love and respect for. It soon, however, becomes alarming clear the narrator is mad. What follows is my analytical review of this characters mental state. (Poe) The first hint that something is awry with our narrator is when he relates that he has suffered from some malady which goes without added elaboration. While he mentions no specific ill affects of this ailment, he claims that “the disease had sharpened my senses” and “Above all was the sense of hearing acute.” This improved hearing will play a critical role later in the story, and yet is also a point of contradiction as well. Next, he tells us that he “cannot say how first the idea entered my brain.” However this happened, he has clearly become consumed by it. He confirms this when he says how it “haunted” him “day and night.” I suggest that this preoccupation is a mental defect since it obstructs normal cognitive harmony. What is in my mind the some of the strongest evidence for his madness is when he admits to loving the old man who “had never wronged” him, yet he becomes obsessed with eliminating one of the man’s eyes. It seems to me that the old man has a cataract or some other condition of the eye making it a pale blue color. Our narrator is so distressed by the gaze of this one eye that his “blood ran cold” whenever it fell upon... ... middle of paper ... ...e as villains when he confesses. This suggests to me that he is unable to see his own actions as evil. Instead he seems to feel that the world is out to get him. The old man’s eye, the police, the neighbor who reported the noise, all of them are in his mind are conspiring against him. (Poe) In summary, there is much evidence to show that the narrator has gone mad in this story. Much of it has to do with the dichotomy of love and hate, reality and illusion. We see that narrator has trouble in distinguishing between what is real and that which is imagined. His mental state cannot be logically considered sound by any objective means. At several points in the story he displays his lack of connection with reality. He continually makes reference to his sanity all the while acting on thoughts that are clearly not bound by normal standards of mental acuity.
Despite of this information, how he is a calculated killed, in paragraph 2 it reads,” Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.” A person who is mentally insane can have uncomfortable behaviors and this information shows that he had nothing against the old man. Therefore, the narrator acted on impulsive behavior and can be described as mentally
Moreover, the diction of the narrator and his repeated pleas to the reader to believe this thought, while not truly convincing, serve as a means to support his case. He asks, ”How, then, am I mad?” and “but why will you say that I am mad?” Beyond what could be considered a maniacal monologue, the narrator’s creepy fascination with the old man’s eye further distinguishes mental illness. What is described as “a pale blue eye, with a film over it” is, in all probability, a cataract, which is not nearly as evil as
He continuously tells the reader that he is, in fact, sane and has never been more so. The narrators in Poe 's stories are typically not without a flaw that gives the reader a reason to feel pity toward them; they usually have some trait which propels them into being hopeless in situations. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the protagonist has the flaw of insanity, which leads to his downfall. He admits to the murder after he becomes convinced he hears the dead old man 's heart beating. While the narrator claims he is completely sane, it is due on some level to his awareness he is not. While in denial, he shares his feelings about his condition with others and gives himself away. The narrator does this so often it may cause a reader to wonder if he is doing it on purpose or if he is just that insane. The main character 's biggest conflict is with himself. He practically begs the reader to be blind to his actions and only to hear his words which say his mind is in one piece. Had he thought it through or been saner, he would have seen his words and his actions told two completely different stories. For all the narrator 's claims that his condition was helping him rather than hindering him, he failed to see and take action to prevent this from
Edgar Allen Poe shows what really happens when someone experiences anxiety and terror that drives his or her mentally ill when given the obstacles inside his mind. The obstacles described inside Tell-Tale Heart bring the narrator to an ironic end. These hindrances slowly build up to a chilling end for the narrator. This end is drawn out with the beating of a heart that doesn’t go away and reminds the narrator that the old man is still haunting him. The narrator has an idea in his head that he is not crazy and in fact is too calm to be mad and has an ironic story behind it.
In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator attempts to assert his sanity while describing a murder he carefully planned and executed. Despite his claims that he is not mad, it is very obvious that his actions are a result of his mental disorder. Hollie Pritchard writes in her article, “it has been suggested that it is not the idea but the form of his madness that is of importance to the story” (144). There is evidence in the text to support that the narrator suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was experiencing the active phase of said disease when the murder happened. The narrator’s actions in “The Tell-Tale Heart” are a result of him succumbing to his paranoid schizophrenia.
In Edgar Allan Poe’s short-story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the storyteller tries to convince the reader that he is not mad. At the very beginning of the story, he asks, "...why will you say I am mad?" When the storyteller tells his story, it's obvious why. He attempts to tell his story in a calm manner, but occasionally jumps into a frenzied rant. Poe's story demonstrates an inner conflict; the state of madness and emotional break-down that the subconscious can inflict upon one's self.
"True!--nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses--not destroyed--not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heavens and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?" "...Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me.” As you can see this man is clearly mad, because this story is told in the first person it helps you understand the character even better, because we are seeing what exactly is happening to him moment by moment. It helps us understand what is going on in his head because we are getting to know him through out the story.
In the first place, I fathom the narrator is insane because he is proven ill. For instance, there are many clues throughout “The Tell Tale Heart” that despite the
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.
Many who are considered mad by others, would not consider themselves to be this way. Written by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story of a murder. A theme that shows in this short story would be the line between sanity and insanity is blurred. At the beginning, the narrator says, “but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them” (Poe par. 1). The narrator does not believe he has gone mad, but rather the opposite. He describes his senses becoming
...arly shows that the narrator is insane because he heard noises, which could not possibly have occurred. As the police officers were sitting and talking in the old man's chamber, the narrator becomes paranoid that the officers suspect him of murder. The narrator says, "I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die". The narrator is deluded in thinking the officers knew of his crime because his insanity makes him paranoid.
He explains that his disease makes all his senses and especially his hearing, very sensitive as well as acute. The narrator then informs the readers of the events in his past to prove that he isn’t mad. He tells the readers that he loves the old man and has nothing against him, except the old man’s “pale blue eye, with a film over it” (Poe). The narrator explains how he hates the evil eye and whishes to kill the old man, so that he could be free from the eye. He goes on to say that for seven nights he would go to the old man’s room and watch him sleep, but on the eighth night, the old man wakes from hearing the narrator enter the room and from the shadows the narrator sees the evil eye prompting him to kill the old man. When the policeman come to the house, the narrator convents them that nothing bad has happened but because he was feeling confident he invites the policeman to the room to chat. All seems well until the narrator starts to hear the beating of a heart and freaks out and confesses that he murdered the old man. The story is littered with creepy symbols, horrific themes, and psychological effects of guilt and sin that embodies the Dark Romantic style shown through the insane nameless narrator who seeks to kill the old man with the evil
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.
It’s ironic how the narrator loves the old man but the narrator compassionately plans to kill the old man (because of his evil eye). This situation underscores virtue through the contradiction on how the narrator plans to kill the old man but he somehow has affection towards the old man. Now why would the narrator imply that he loves the old man when he was plotting to kill him? Particularly, if the narrator was sane he wouldn’t love someone he was about to kill for something that isn’t worth killing for, it doesn’t make sense to kill someone because of the color of their eyes. The narrator is somewhat similar to a spider, he loves the old man then he kills him.
All mental illnesses, despite whatever effects they may hold, have strong impacts on the lives of those who possess it. These problems can create an unpredictable turn of events that drive the person insane and ruin their lives, but also has the possibility to make the person stronger, may it be mentally or physically. Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart is told in the position of a mentally unstable man who describes the murder he committed while hopelessly convincing the reader that he is sane. However, the relationships between characters are unclear, but there are many possible relations that seem suitable to the characters in the story. One such common deduction includes the narrator being hired as a butler by the old man, and had worked for him