preview

Doppelganger Effect In The Tell Tale Heart

Decent Essays

The Tell Tale Heart is simply an invigorating tale of a criminal who tried to prove his sanity by writing about his own account of how he killed a man. Poe describes the actions seen through the eyes of a senile narrator. The narrator focuses on the old man's eye and determines to commit a conscious act of murder. He insists on seating the policemen in the very room where he had assassinated the old man just a few hours before, the old man's body was disclosed beneath the floorboards at the narrator's own admission and admits his crime because of the loud beating of the heart. Throughout the entire story, the readers can expect detailed descriptions of how the murder was accomplished and what thoughts – sane or insane – went on inside the murderer’s mind. He prides himself on his strategic planning and mastery at deceiving others. In this story, an effect which may evidently be observed is the doppelganger effect, as depicted in the old man’s identification with the murderer who is also the narrator of the story (Chua 350). In various scenes of the story, the narrator revealed that he understands and empathizes with what the old man feels. The narrator feels bad whenever the old man looks like he is having trouble, and he also feels terrified every time the old man looks frightened. Therefore, this shows that the narrator actually had no hostile reason to kill the man since he actually feels for him and/or loves him. However, what made the narrator murder the old man is

Get Access