The Tell-Tale Heart Response

One of Washington Irving’s short and most famous stories ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ has become a ghoulish characteristic yet an individual might still be unaccustomed with its idiocy (Hoffman, 425). Based on the real legend of Ichabod Crane, the story reveals how he disappeared. For that reason, the story revolves around the themes of wealth, appearances, truth, warfare, supernatural, gluttony and greed. On the other hand, 'The Tell-Tale Heart ' is a short story that has been written by Edgar Allen Poe. Within the story, Poe reveals two major themes of madness and guilt whereby the narrator unable to deal with his guilt making him confess everything to the police

    After the narrator’s ‘clean up’ he heard a knock from three police officers who got a call about a scream from the house. They asked to search the house and asks some questions, the narrator felt fine and let the officers in. The narrator took the officers to each room and even sat down in the bedroom to sit and discuss about the scream. “I soon wished that they would go. My head hurt and there was a strange sound in my ears. I talked more, and faster. The sound became clearer. And still they sat and talked.” The narrator was being a little cocky about his clean up and thought he was in the clear, but was getting annoyed for how long the officers were staying for. Soon the narrator started to hear the soft ticking sound he once swore against. The narrator started to grow paranoid from this sound and soon began to snap. “Suddenly I knew

In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe creates the guilty character of an unnamed narrator through indirect characterization. Using the components of actions, dialogue, and motivations, Poe depicts a story about immorality and reveals confidence can cause a person to lose their awareness of a situation.

To begin with, the narrator is guilty of premeditated murder because he planned to dispatch the innocent man. Throughout the short story, Edgar Allan Poe describes the events leading to the confession and made some points clear that he is guilty of premeditated murder. For example, the narrator tells the readers that he has been stalking the old man for seven nights just at twelve. “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him … to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked upon him while he slept.” (Poe) As you can see, the narrator is clearly devising a plan to kill the old

The narrator could distinguish fantasy from reality. This is visibly true for the narrator, because the he states, “When the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept” (Poe, 1843, par. 3). This demonstrates that he was fully aware of what he was doing at night, even being bold enough to ask the man he was stalking how his night was. His attitude also shows that he

First, Poe suggests the narrator is insane by his assertions of sanity. For example, the narrator declares because he planned the murder so expertly he could not be insane. He says, "Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen how wisely I proceeded-with what

The cold and calculating confession is due to the fact that the narrator has detached himself from all sense of normal remorse. His madness has rendered him unable to control ordinary emotions. Instead, he is left begging the reader to praise his cunningly accomplished acts. The narrator states, “You should have seen me,” and then implores again, “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded – and with what caution – with what foresight – with what dissimulation I went to work!” (Poe 923). It is apparent to the reader, or anyone of sound mind, that this man is suffering a mental breakdown due to obsessive paranoia. What triggered his obsession with the victim is something so simple it cannot be justified. It was the victim’s eye!

1. He is not a reliable narrator because he is insane. Though he repeatedly states that he is sane, the reader suspects otherwise from his bizarre reasoning, behavior, and speech. ‘‘True—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?'' The reader realizes through Poe’s description of the narrator’s extreme nervousness that the protagonist has in fact descended into madness, as anxiety is a common symptom of insanity. He apparently suffers from some form of paranoia. Besides, the narrator claims that he loves the old man and has no motive for the murder other than his growing dislike of a cloudy film over one of the old man’s eyes. His madness becomes

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.

Poe indicates through the occurrence of the events that the narrator has descended into madness. As his guilt constantly haunts him, the narrator is unable to hide it any longer, and confesses everything to the authorities, which ruins his seemingly “perfect crime.” Here, his sanity is in question, as no man of sound mind would openly confess his evil doings to the authorities. The fact that he narrates his crime to prove that he is sane, proves that he is in fact, insane (Holland).

Edgar Allan Poe is a prominent writer who wrote many peculiar and uncanny short stories and poems. One of the stories Poe wrote, “The Tell Tale Heart,” published in 1843, is about a narrator who is paranoid about an old man’s eye, so he decides to eradicate it. Another story by Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado,” published in 1846, is about a narrator who seeks revenge on his friend because, in the past, he was insulted by him. Both stories contain narrators, which are mentally unstable, but the narrator’s traits, their motives for the murder, and how their guilt is exhibited differ.

Although a literary text can be interpreted many different ways, a particular approach can be enlightening and reveal possible and specific ways to interpret the text. In Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator begins the story with stating that he is “nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous” (Poe) - but not insane. Through the story, he attempts to defend his sanity, but ultimately confesses to killing an old man. He had no motivation besides the fear of the man’s eye – “the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it” (Poe). From a psychoanalytic approach, readers could infer that the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is being driven by his ego. His is fixed on committing his crime cautiously, but in the end his ego forces him to confess his misdeed. This approach shows what drives the mind to make the decisions we as people make. Furthermore, it shows the results of the unrepressed ego.

Poe’s descriptive writing highlights the narrator’s developing suspicions, the intuition in action, and eventually, the source of his instincts coming to light. Poe describes a nearly tangible scene of a “gloomy” and “tempest[ous]” environment that easily spawns fear in the narrator’s mind (Poe 320). The author’s vivid depiction of the physical surroundings of the narrator clarifies his thought process and the conditions leading to his fear. The narrator infers that something was wrong from the ambience of what he could see around him. Subsequently, Poe communicates the speaker’s active portrayal of the man “uplift[ing himself] upon the pillows” in a sudden and fearful fit, followed by his “pacing rapidly to and fro” nervously (Poe 320). Poe’s precise description is rooted in his acquaintance with this feeling of inexplicable fear, a characteristic shared with even one

I am writing about the Tell Tale Heart. Because in the story a mad man kills an old man for his eye. Yes my freinds, his eye. He did not like the way the eye looked at him. He even chopped the guy into pieces and hid them under floor boards. This guy is smart and insane at the same time.

The first piece of evidence is when Poe writes, “It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! Would a madman have been so wise as this?” (Poe 3) The main idea of that quote is similar to another that is found in The Tell-Tale Heart. This is the part of the story where the narrator already murdered the old man and has dissembled the body and is hiding it. The narrator tells the audience, “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body.” ( Poe 12) He was silent and cautious to make sure he did not arouse the old man and attempted to not alert the neighbors of his devious deed. He thought wisely, and usually madmen do not think wisely. Insane people do things very recklessly and thoughtlessly when making decisions have been involved. That idea leads this essay into the next