The Tell-Tale Heart Essay, Research Paper

Paper on: The Tell-Tale Heart

True! nervous very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The Tell-Tale Heart, a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, is about an insane butler who plans to kill the man that he is working for. In the film adaptation the narrator shows us, the viewers, how careful and cunning he is about the way he kills the man he works for. Poe shows us the narrator is mad by what the narrator feels, says, and does.

Poe shows us that the narrator is mad through how the narrator feels. The narrator tells us that he has so great of feelings for the old man that he loves the old man, but the irony of that is that the narrator says he wants to kill the old man. The narrator says he feels happy and he has nothing to fear, because the narrator knows that he has done a good job in covering up his tracks of killing the old man. The narrator also tells us that he feels nervous, so dreadfully nervous, because he can here the old mans heart beating through the floor.

Through further evidence Poe shows that the narrator is mad by what the narrator says. The narrator says the one thing that offends and drives the narrator crazy is the old mans left eye, not his right eye or both, just the left eye. The narrator says his senses have become sharpened, from having to be careful not to let anyone see him kill the old man, or to let anyone know that he killed the old man. The narrator also tells us that he not only hears voices on earth but he also hears voices in heaven and in hell. Yet still the narrator denies being mad.

Deeper analysis of how Poe makes the narrator seem mad reveals what the narrator does. The narrator was always very nice to the old man, the narrator was always at the old mans beckoning call and dressed, bathed, fed, and came to the old man when he needed help. But the narrator kills the old man, in spite of how much he cared about the old man and what he did for the old man. One way the viewer knows the narrator is mad is how psycho the narrator goes when the narrator goes to kill the old man and the narrator sees the left eye of the old man open and the narrator goes crazy. The narrator is also very careful about killing the old man, for it took the narrator several nights just to go into the old mans room to kill him.

In conclusion, the narrator is or has gone very mad. Poe shows that the narrator has gone mad through how the narrator feels, what he says, and what he does.