Edgar Allan Poe 's The Tell Tale Heart

I am doing my essay on “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe. I am going to tell you about the author and what he is greatly known for, next I will summarize the story and tell you the main themes and parts of the story that really play a big role in the story, then I will describe all the symbolisms in the story, and last I will prove that the deed drove the narrator insane more than he was already.

One feature that created suspense in the story was time. In the “Tell-Tale Heart”, time often seemed to speed up or slow down. One example of time movely slowly in the passage is: “I moved slowly-- very, very slowly, so I might not disturb the old man’s sleep”. You almost sense the deliberate movements of narrator. In contrast, the phrase: “The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence”, shows that time is advancing quickly; you could almost see the moon vanishing and the narrator’s quick movements. These “time warps” adds suspense, anticipation, and a growing sense of horror to the story and encourages the reader to continue reading.

Every night he would watch the old man sleep. He found comfort in knowing that the eye was not watching him, that it could not see the true evil in him. While the eye was closed, so was the idea of killing the old man. It is not until the old man awakens each day that the struggle within him is apparent. This may be the reason why the narrator is so obsessed with watching the old man sleep. The actual act of murder, which the man believes was premeditated, was in fact a spur of the moment action. He toiled with the idea while the man was awake, that is, while he could see the "evil eye". However, while the eye was closed, the man was at peace. One night, during one of the man's "stalking" sessions, the old man awakens. The man goes into a paranoid frenzy, mistaking the beating of his heart for the beating of the old man's heart. During this frenzy, the man is afraid that neighbors will hear the beating of the old man's heart. This causes the man to take action. He quickly subdues the old man and kills him. He then takes extreme steps in disposing of the body, dismembering it and burying it under the planks in the floorboard. These extreme actions can be used as evidence to the paranoia that is taking over him. The fear of getting caught would be a normal reaction to someone who has committed a murder. However, the dismemberment of the body was not necessary since the man had ample resources to dispose of

In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, it is classified as a short story with horror fiction as the genre. This was written in three different types of fear during the Romanticism period. In this short story the encounter is filtered through the eyes of the unnamed dynamic narrator. The narrator consumes upon the old man’s eye and determines to perform a conscious act of murder. Fear is defined as a horrid feeling that is caused by a belief that a person or something is unsafe, most likely to cause grief, or any type of threat. It is something that people can first experience as children, and is accustomed to respond to in many different ways. Some people live in constant fear; of accidents, of bad people doing any harm, or of physical disorders. Others only obtain things as they come in life, whether they are good or horrible things. Edgar Allen Poe describes fear in “The Tell-Tale Heart” in three ways such as gore, the mood, and insanity.

“The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a petrifying short story. Poe incorporated a variety of literary elements to intimidate the reader. Personification, theme, and symbols are combined to create a suspenseful horror story.

In “The Tell Tale Heart”, by Edgar Allen Poe, the reader is presented with the short story of a madman who narrates his murder of an old man because, “he had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it” (Poe 105). The narrator has thought thoroughly about his plan to murder this old man, and the murderer then stashes his body underneath the floorboards. Eventually, his guilt overcomes him and he starts hallucinating that he hears the old man’s heartbeat. Ultimately, he confesses to the police about his crime after being driven to the point of insanity due to his remorse. “The Tale Tell Heart” is one of Poe’s best-known stories because he utilizes the elements of Gothic Literature to establish a disturbing sense of mystery throughout the story. Farida characterizes Gothic Literature as “the elements of fear, horror, the supernatural and darkness” (Foster 1), and Poe effectively adopts this style in many of his short story. These ominous characteristics give the story both a dark and spontaneous sequence of events that draws the reader in. In “The Tell Tale Heart,” Edgar Allen Poe employs several Gothic elements such as the setting, emotion, and the word choice in order to communicate an uncertain description of reality. In any case, Poe 's technique definitely holds your attention coming into the story.

In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allen Poe depicts a gruesome tale. His use of dark imagery and harsh words make this story an unmistakable product of the Dark Romantic period. Poe’s use of the first person narrator adds an important dimension to the story. The narrator’s thoughts are eating him alive and Poe clearly portrays this to readers by repeating words and having the narrator constantly question himself:

The narrator of “The Tell Tale Heart” is unreliable because he exaggerates many of the “sane” actions he performed. The narrator boasts to the audience how, “[he]

Moreover, he tries to defend his sanity by explaining how wise and cautious he was as he was preparing for the murder. Every night he checked on the old man to make sure he got everything right and get ready to execute his plan. The narration lacks of a concrete explanation of the person or place to which it is addressed, which leaves much room for interpretation for the readers. What we can infer from the story is it is not addressed to the police officers since the narrator says he was successful in making them satisfied. Finally, the climax of the story comes as the revelation of the dead body hidden under the planks. Because the story is told as a memento, our estimation might be that the narrator is addressing a court official or personage who may influence over the judgment of the narrator. Therefore, the story that the narrator is telling is most accurately realized as an appeal for mercy rather than just being an appeal to be thought sane.

To begin, the narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart should be convicted of murder because he was in his right state of mind at the time. The patience he demonstrated is evidence of this. In the story, the narrator waited seven nights for the old man to open his eye. And each night as he so

He thinks that since he cleverly devised this plan to kill the old man, that does not make him insane at all and it shows how mentally stable he is. As the story continues on, the descent into madness is getting worse and worse. The narrator cannot stand the elderly man’s apparent “evil eye”. His insanity is continuing on and on and he can’t fathom his own madness. Every night the narrator repeatedly stalks the elderly man and tries to wake him up so he can kill him to get rid of the “evil eye”. The narrator is clearly insane and his actions are showing his absurd mindset. There is no reason on why he should kill the elderly man, but his mind is telling him to do so. Eventually the narrator ends up killing the old while he shines a light onto the old man’s eye and finally looks at the eye. He kills the old man instantly because he eventually hears the elderly man's heart beating rapidly and the narrator is afraid that the neighbors will hear the old man’s loud heart beating. “Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me --the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man’s hour had come!” (Poe 11). The narrator’s insanity got to the best of him from the fear of thinking about getting caught.

Even if one feels they may have 'gotten away ' with a crime, the weight of a person’s conscience cannot be concealed. In someone’s life, too much power and control combined with a person’s conscience in a person’s life can and will lead to an imbalance and perhaps insanity as in the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates how the narrator in this story goes through the greed and need for control, leading to his insanity that results in extreme guilt.

Throughout “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Edgar Allan Poe, tries to convey the central themes of guilt and insanity to the audience. How the narrator tells the story proves the theory completely. He tells his audience how he plans to kill the old man, and he takes them with him every step of the way. While telling the readers how he murders the man, he also assures them that he is not mad or insane. However, the readers know that he is crazy because he kills a harmless old man, that he claims to love, solely because he fears his eyeball. He is trying to convince himself of this, as well as, trying to convince his audience. Though he proves to have a mental incapability, he still shows signs of morality and guilt. The beating heart demonstrates this human quality that he obtains. When the narrator uses the lantern in his plan, he shows signs of

Guilt is the manifestation of one’s consciousness telling them that they have committed a serious offense. The emotion that one feels when they have guilt on their mind can take over their mentality and allow them to own up to their offenses; however, there are others that are able to remain calm in the face of confrontation and get away with the horrendous crimes that they have done. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Cask of Amontillado” the three protagonists are faulty of crimes they commit but deal with their guilt in separate ways.

In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe delights readers to a very thought out and psychological based short story of a very in depth murder from the murderer’s perspective. In “The Tell-Tale Heart: Overview” it is proven that: