Tell Tale Heart By Poe Essay, Research Paper

The short story can produce many different "types" of characters.

Usually, these characters are faced with situations that give us an insight into

their true "character". In the Tell Tale Heart, a short story written

by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator of the story is faced with a fear. He is afraid

of the Old Man’s Eye. The actions that this narrator performs in order to quell

his fear can lead others to believe that he suffers from some sort of mental

illness. The very fact that this narrator is so repulsed by the old man’s eye,

which he refers to as "the evil eye", is reason enough to be

suspicious of his character. The narrator has an inner struggle with the thought

that "the evil eye" is watching him and an underlying feeling that

"the evil eye" will see the real person that he has become. This

paranoia leads the narrator to believe that the only way he can put down his

fears is to kill the old man. It is said that denial is usually the sign of a

problem. If this holds true, then the narrator has the characteristics of a

"madman". In the first paragraph, he asks, "but why will you say

that I am mad!" (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) This statement can be looked upon

as a statement made by someone going through a paranoid episode. He talks as if

he is in frenzy, especially when he talks about hearing things in heaven and in

hell. "The disease had sharpened my senses?Above all was the sense of

hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven?I heard many things in

hell." (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) The "disease" that the narrator

is talking about eats away at his conscience until "[I] made up my mind to

take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever."

(Kennedy & Gioia, 34) The progression of the story revolves around the

actions of the narrator. He describes the "wise" ways in which he

prepares himself to commit this deed. The way the narrator "stalks"

the old man the whole week before he kills him can be evidence of a problem.

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 within his

soul. 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 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 narrator 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 narrator was at peace. One night, during one of the

narrator’s "stalking" sessions, the old man awakens. The narrator goes

into a paranoid frenzy, mistaking the beating of his heart for the beating of

the old man’s heart. During this frenzy, the narrator is afraid that neighbors

will hear the beating of the man’s heart. This causes the narrator 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 shape. 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 narrator had ample resources to dispose of the body

properly. When the police arrive at the house, the narrator is sure that he has

nothing to fear. He lets them into the house and bids them to search wherever

they like. He leads them into the room where the body is buried and invites them

to sit down. Although he fears nothing consciously, the narrator battles with

his conscience subconsciously. He begins to feel uneasy when the officers start

talking to him. The paranoia begins to build steadily and before long, the

narrator hears the beating of his heart, which he again mistakes for the beating

of the corpse’s heart. This implication gives further evidence to the paranoid

nature of the narrator. The beating grows louder to him and, since it is his

heart beating, the officers could not hear it. This made the narrator even

uneasier since he could not understand why they could not hear it as well. A

short while later and after a rabid inner struggle, the narrator, in a fit of

rage, admits to his crime, believing that the police officer were aware of what

he had done. This is the pinnacle of his paranoid state. The idea that the

officers were just toying with him, that they knew all along that he had

murdered, presents a clear case of paranoid psychosis. Despite the narrator’s

cunning plan of how to commit the murder and how to dispose of the body, his own

sub-conscience becomes his undoing. The sound of the old man’s heartbeat

continues to taunt the narrator and his reaction to his subconscious thoughts

causes him to admit his crime to the police.