The Tell Tale Heart -The Tell Tale Heart was a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, an American Writer who lived from 1809 to 1849 he was famous for his short stories and poems, such as “The Raven” -I chose this poem because it reminded me of my relative who lost an eye in the war and has a glass eye. When i was five or six they were sleeping so I poked it and it was very solid and freaked me out.
“ The Tell-Tale Heart” Interpretive Essay Is the complex character created by Edgar Allan Poe a calculated killer or a delusional madman. In the short story “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character has a mental condition which causes him to kill a neighbor. He believes that his neighbor has a “vulture eye” which is the reason why he killed him. Night after night, he watches the man and plans how to kill him. Then one night, he puts his plan into action.
What the narrator didn’t know is that the old man was blind in one eye which caused his eye to look the way it did. If the narrator loved the old man why would he kill him for one little flaw? Throughout the story he claims he is’t crazy which shows that he’s crazy enough to make up the murder.
In this short story “ The Tell- Tale Heart” author Edgar Allan Poe presents a character who was extremely nervous and insane that tries to kill an old man because of his eye. This character, the young man, tries to convince the reader that he is not mad by telling us what happened in his own perspective. In the story the young man live in the same house with the old man. He tells us his close relationship with him and how much he loved him.
In “the tell-tale heart”, the narrator is without a doubt insane. The first reason the narrator is considered insane is that he clearly lets his emotions take over. The only reason he had for killing the old man was because of his eye. He described the eye as of a “vulture”.
The Tell Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado are two fictional psychological horror stories written by Edgar Allen Poe. The two stories have many similarities, including that they both have main characters who murder someone, and have many compelling ‘evil’ traits to discuss. However, the character Montresor from The Cask of Amontillado is more evil than the Narrator from The Tell Tale Heart. This is because Montresor feels no kind of guilt over the murder he’s committed, and was completely sane while murdering his victim. Montresor has undoubtedly committed a malicious crime, but what arguably makes it even worse is that he both feels no remorse for what he’s done, and never faces any consequence for it.
"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity" "There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of a Hell." -Edgar Allan Poe A man whose life is still veiled in mystery even 150 years after his death, Edgar Allan Poe, the father of horror and gothic writing, is a man that truly understands the meaning of tragedy and madness. Poe lived a life of continuous misfortunes, and in his writings he expresses a darker view on humanity, one example would be in his short story "The Tell-Tale Heart", a story about a man that desperately tries to convince the reader that he is a sane man, despite the egregious story he proceeds to tell; he goes on by walking you through the time he killed an old, innocent man.
The man says, “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing.” Tying in with the arrogant tones as well, the man has a very dark mind and the readers get a glimpse of his thought train through first person. He explains he needs to “take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” No sane person would kill over a color of an eye, but as he describes the old man’s eye, the audience begins to understand why he takes the life of the old man.
In the story “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edger Allen Poe when the police first get to the house the Narrator was very calm, but as the night goes on the Narrator gets crazy. First, after the Narrator kills the old man the police come because the neighbor heard a scream. The Narrator invites them in sits down and talks with them at 4:00am. Next, they are sitting in the old mans bedroom talking there is no trace of the man being killed, but later in the morning the Narrator starts acting crazy. He is think that the police know.
The narrator’s efficient ability to manage his personal affairs is why he was able to kill the old man so easily. The narrator’s ability to tell fantasy from reality and manage his personal affairs, outlines his sanity throughout the horror, short, story “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. The narrator is able to tell both his fantasies from reality and manage his personal affairs by hiding the body to avoid getting caught and maintain his relationship with the old man even when planning to kill
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe which explores the psychological turmoil of the narrator who has committed murder. The narrator's symptoms of guilt are similar to those who have ODC in "Signs of Guilt," as both portray people having recurring thoughts about their actions. It also states experiencing guilt and how they struggle to cope with psychological and emotional consequences of their actions. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator is tormented by the sound of the old man's beating heart, which he hears in his mind after he slaughtered the old man just for having one blue eye.
Ellie Bass EN 222 02 Literature Professor Kimberlee Hall March 9, 2024 The Tell-Tale Heart Close Reading “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe is a chilling short story about a narrator who kills a man with a strange eye, feels great about what he’s just accomplished, and eventually becomes haunted by the guilt of doing so. He shows those around him that he is calm, cool, and collected, but suddenly makes a switch and starts to believe that the victim’s heart is beating louder and louder until the narrator eventually descends into madness. As the story develops and goes on, the tone, story structure, and word choices all play a role in how the narrator proves to the audience that he is unreliable and that his point of view cannot be trusted.
There are times in life where people do commit a trivial mistake or a colossal crime, but listening to their conscience will decide if the mistake was worth it. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character lives with an old man who has an eye that “resembled that of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” The story revolves around the main character’s obsession over the eye, and how he rid himself of it-- by murdering the old man. Towards the end of the story, the young man confesses to the police about his insane stunt after they searched his house. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe focused on having the reader know more than the secondary character, using description, and using a first-person narrator,
If someone killed another person, then chopped them up, and then proceeded to stuff them under the floorboards, would you say they were insane? Most Likely. Well, to be actually considered insane is something more specific than you think. A summarized definition of it is when a person commits a crime, they didn't completely understand what they were doing due to a mental disease or defect, therefore they cannot be proven guilty. With that newfound information, you might now believe that the person that killed them isn't insane.
This mental issue is illustrated in this quote. “And I did this for seven long nights—every night just at midnight—but I found that the eye was always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work: for it was not the old man that vexed me, but his Evil Eye” (1). This quote shows the reader that the “madman” has an inner conflict, which is his perceived imperfection in the old man's eye. He needs everything to be exactly perfect, and that’s why he did the same thing every night for seven nights. Once he began to go through with his crime, he cannot commit.
