The Reliability of the Narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It tells about a young man, the narrator, that killed his landlord or employer without any justified reason. The character explained his decision by a physical defect of the old man. The victim had damaged eye that irritated the narrator: “He had the eye of a vulture… Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold” (Poe). Then the character cut the body and hid it under the floor. But these preparations were useless as the man gave himself away, when his could not stand the “sound” of the old man’s heart. All events represent the narrator as an unreliable source. It is easy to believe he killed the old man, but readers will not see character’s explanations of his actions as reasonable as he treated them. The opinion refers both to triggers of murder …show more content…
The man called them wise and clever, but readers can have another opinion about hours of slow pulling through the door each night during a week. While skills of hidden spying on a potential victim look useful from the criminal point of view, reasons of these actions were absurd. The situation with the character’s reliability became clear during the final scene: “here, here! -It is the beating of his hideous heart!” (Poe). It is obvious the old man’s heart could not beat under the mentioned circumstances. There was a potential possibility the man was irritated by blood that dropped from disjoined body. It could create a sound similar to heartbeat, if the corpse lied on a wooden surface with a hollow space under it. But it is only a suggestion without any supportive evidences. A large amount of blood went to the tub during the dismembering. And the remained volume unlikely could create “a low, dull, quick sound” (Poe) in conditions of the floor void. So character’s reaction was totally caused by his