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Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
The theme of the tell-tale heart
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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.
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
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...
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
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.
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
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.
"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.
...story, the narrator continues to repeat himself over and over, along with question why the reader should have any uncertainty about his psychological state. Additionally, the narrator continues to defend his sanity by telling the reader that he cannot be considered crazy because he was mindful and took caution in his actions: “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work!” (1). With Poe’s writing style and use of language he achieves an emotion of genuine doubt about the narrator’s true mental state. Moreover, Poe reveals the narrator’s fear of the “vulture eye” and his peculiar obsession with it until he is finally able to eliminate it.
“Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees-very gradually-I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. Tell-tale heart is centered on the narrator and the old man that allegedly killed him because o...
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.
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.
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.
As displayed while the narrator stalks the old man, Poe utilizes parallelism and symbolism to emphasize the all consuming obsession of the narrator. In the beginning of the story the narrator embarks on his mission to kill the old man, after seeing the old man’s eye claiming that “Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. …I think it was his eye! He had the eye of a vulture... and by so degrees –very gradually –I made my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe1). Poe utilizes parallelism to emphasize that the eye is the true motive behind the murder when he says, “Object there was none. Passion there was none” (1) validating that the narrator has convinced himself the eye is the source of all evils and must destroy the “eye” which sparks an all consuming obsession. This obsession is also backed by the earlier purpose of self identification, if he identifies closely with the old man, the eyes of the old man are the only ones that can truly see through his façade- and therein becomes a weakness that must be destroyed. Following this weakness critic Charles E.May delves into the narrator’s obsession claiming that “If we relate the motif of the narrator’s identification with the old man to his obsession with the eye, we can see that...what the narrator really wants to destroy is the not the eye but that which sound like the ‘eye’ --that is the, ‘I’ ”(May1). This corroborates the purpose of the eye, as it validates the narrator 's unquenchable obsession with the eye. Furthermore Poe utilizes symbolism when the narrator states “...I found the eye always closed; and it was so impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye.”(Poe 3). Poe clearly addresses the fact of the eye becoming the source of all animosity when he says “...it was not
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.