The story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, is about a man who goes crazy about an old man’s eye. It takes over his life, becoming obsessed with the fact that he has to get rid of it. He is proud for finally finishing what he has wanted to do, which was murder the old man. But later, his being becomes consumed with guilt afterwards, and even confesses to the murder to the police officers. The narrator is a arrogant, patient, and mad person, all in one.
The narrator is an arrogant man. He prides himself whenever he did not have to clean up any blood. He says, “|I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye-not even his could have detected any thing wrong. There was nothing to wash out no stain of any kind-no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all-ha! ha!” (Poe 7). He describes his work as being so meticulous, so perfect that no one would even suspect that he had committed a murder. His arrogance is even comes later in the story, where the police officers had come to inspect his home. The police officers had no idea he had done anything wrong, since they did come to the conclusion that he was innocent. They believed everything the narrator had told them. He put his own chair on top of the floorboard where the old man was unde. That shows how prideful and arrogant he was, he was proud that he could get away with it.
Another trait that describes the narrator is patient. He was planning to kill the man since the beginning. He was a patient man; he did not commit this act fast. That was one of his positive traits. “After one week of preparation, the narrator charges into the old man’s bedroom after midnight and kills him using the heavy bed the victim had been sleeping in to either crush or suffocate him” (The Tell-Tale Heart). He went into the man’s room every day, for a week, before he murdered him. Every day he would check up on him and the old man Would not even have a clue about who he truly was. He was cunning and patient. He wanted to be precise and orderly, not messy. The narrator was very prepared and devoted to getting the job done.
The narrator is a mad person. He said he was not, but there are several clues indicating that he was not okay, and, quite possibly, mentally ill. “He says he has no personal animosity toward him, that he does not want his money, that the old man has not injured him in any way. In fact, he says he loves the old man” (May). This quote describes how the narrator had no absolute reason to kill the man. He just wanted to because of an eyeball. He did not like to see it every day. He also reiterates that he is not insane; he insists that he is not. It makes me his sanity. It seems like he is in denial. Another evidence of his mental state is the ending, where he says he hears a heart beat, which means that he is not well, because the old man is dead.
The narrator is mad, patient and arrogant. His obsession with the eye made him even more insane than he already was, because it caused him to do an evil act. It was not a valid reason to murder someone he loved. This tale is interesting because of how the narrator became so infatuated with committing murder; he took pride in himself when he did it. Edgar Allan Poe created a character that showed guilt can consume any person, even if they are insane.
Works Cited
- May, Charles E. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Cernter Plus. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
- Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. N.p.: n.p., 1843. Print. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database.
- Dover Thrift Edition, 18 Oct. 2004. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
