Unraveling the Mystery: Poe's 'The Tell Tale Heart'

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In the story The Tell Tale Heart by Edger Alan Poe, a murder mystery is given. The kind of murder where we know the narrator as the killer, but can't quite understand his purpose in doing so. At first it seems the narrator is simply personifying death. He's also referring to himself as Death. The narrator is the stalker in the dark shown in the quote, "All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim." (Poe 5) In an article titled Poe's THE TELL-TALE HEART, by: Pritchard, Hollie, Explicator "The narrator seems proud of carrying out his crime. He brags about "how healthily--how calmly [he] can tell you the whole story" (Poe 303)... it is not surprising that the narrator admits …show more content…

Comments like these provoke questions about how the body and mind influence each other, and about the versions of reality of the people they belong to. We know that feeling, like the way the old nerves clang after that seventh cup of coffee. The narrator obviously doesn't think nervousness is a component of madness. It also seems separate from his "disease." And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense? (6) "The Tell-Tale Heart" provides an engaging premise-the murder of a beloved old man by his housemate-and provokes readers into an exploration of the true motivation for that crime.The narrator makes reference to "the disease" that had "sharpened [his] senses" but remains firm in his question, "[W]hy will you say that I am mad?" (Poe 303). The actions of the narrator, combined with his insistence that he is not mad, lead readers to determine that he must suffer from some psychological disorder; however, it has been suggested that it is not the idea but the form of his madness that is of importance to the story (Quinn 234) Do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am.

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