Preview

An Analysis Of The Narrator In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
386 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Analysis Of The Narrator In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart
Although readers who have read Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Tell-Tale Heart," have stated the narrator is insane, a closer look shows that he is actually sane by means of nervousness, patience, and murder. Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Tell Tale Heart," is a short story about a killer's morality consuming the narrator and a battle between the narrator being insane, or if he is suffering from over-acuteness of the senses. Poe suggests the narrator is sane by the narrator's claim of sanity, "True! - nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am." The narrator's actions bring out the dramatic irony in this story, showing readers the narrator is attentive of his own feelings. The narrator is sane according to the definition of insanity-

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The "Tell-Tale Heart" is an American classic. The teller of Poe’s tale is a classic unreliable narrator. The narrator is not deliberately trying to mislead his audience; he is delusional, and the reader can easily find the many places in the story where the narrator’s telling reveals his mistaken perceptions. His presentation is also deeply ironic: the insistence on his sanity put his madness on display. The first paragraph alone should provide fertile ground for readers to find evidence of his severe disturbance. The effect of this story is powerful and successful.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The book the Tale-Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe Published in 1843. It is told by an unnamed narrator who tries to convince the reader of his reasons, while telling a crime he committed. The victim was an old man with a bluish greyish eye.…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    "The Tell Tale Heart" as people say, "This story is told through the eyes of a madman.......Who,like all of us, believed that he was sane." Sanity believe it or not, is harder to keep than you think. One thing that I have learned from "The Tell Tale Heart" which is, obsessing over little things, is that obsession can lead to insanity. As it did for the man when he obsessed over the old man's eye and heart beat. Obsessions are a common thing and my three basic points of this are, the insanity of the man in the story, the obsession of negativity in Poe's life and how his sanity was effected and how obsessions connects with my life and others around me.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Edgar Allan Poe’s short tale, « the tell tale heart », his imagination, creativity and psychological complexity shines; however, the strength of the stories lies in the theme because the story is built up around it. This trademark interpretive form of fiction begins with a mentally ill narrator retelling a horrendous story, in first person narrative, of motiveless murder. The madness of the narrator is easily shown at the beginning, however the narrator believes that his disease has only heightened his senses, when he implies, “… have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense (6)”. as the story progresses, the reader learns that the protaganist has hidden the victim and shortly after, the murder…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    english 101

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The narrator in the Tell Tale Heart, seems to be of sane mind. This is because he demonstrates guilt for the crime he has committed. Guilt/ Remorse is a major factor in determining someone's sanity.“I could bear those hypocritical smiles…

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    To conclude, the narrator from “The Tell Tale Heart” is insane because he is emotionally unstable. After killing the old man and feeling fulfillment, the narrator cannot control his emotions towards hearing the old man heart and he confesses himself. Guilt and fear affects the narrator's mental defences. Consequently, the narrator admits his crime and has a mental destruction. All in all, this shows how the mind of the narrator is acting against itself…

    • 127 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Tell-Tale Heart

    • 1827 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, presents to the reader a psychological depiction of a narrator who describes his crime with detailed accounts. This Gothic short story shows the dim side of individuals. The story is narrated in first-person; as a result, the reader is not able to conclude a great deal of what the narrator is saying is true. Poe utilizes his words prudently throughout the story to expose a review of paranoia, insanity, and mental declination. The story is stripped of additional elements as a method to intensify the narrator’s fixation with certain and unembellished objects like the eye of the old man, the heartbeat, and his assertion to sanity. Even though the narrator constantly affirms that he is not insane, the reader could presume otherwise due to his bizarre way of thinking, actions, and dialogue.…

    • 1827 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is referred to as mad or insane, but he says that the disease has only sharpened his senses. The narrator insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a virtue eye. The old man appears to be more of a mystery, the neighbor notifies the three policemen of the suspected murder. The three policemen do not have any special role besides of doing their job of being the policemen that they are. A guilty conscience can alter one’s perception in many different ways.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe’s narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” reveals his own ego the readers. An arguably insane man begins to tell the story of how he murdered an elderly man, who seemed to be guilty of no more than having a “vulture eye”. He speaks highly of himself and the execution of his plan. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded-…”. The idea of priding ones self in murder alone would seem like madness to any person reading this, but to the narrator, everything he is about to reveal seems completely sane. With a narrator so oblivious to his madness, blinded by his ego, his sense of guilt is crooked. When in the company of the officers who had come to investigate, his…

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe is famous for his works displaying gothic themes, brutality, and unstable characters. The Tell-Tale Heart is one of his best known stories, involving a narrator with an irrational state of mind. The narrator takes an old man’s life, due to an obsession over his eye. The narrator lacks sufficient motivation for his murder, only that he was terrified of the old man’s eye. The narrator executes and successfully covers his murder, but eventually gets caught due to his own insanity. It becomes obvious that the narrator lacks principles of logic and reasoning in his decision to commit murder and confess to the crime, conveying his madness.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tell-Tale Heart Vs Bowen

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The mysterious story of “The Tell-Tale Heart” we have been reading for generations shares how crazy the man mind can be. “It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night” (Allan Poe). This story was written in 1843 by a great writer by the name of Edgar Allen Poe. The story was…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the story “The tell-tale heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, insanity is portrayed right in the beginning. The author allows the reader to see from the beginning to the end the insanity of the man. This story is told in first person and it becomes a problem throughout the story. The narrator becomes an unreliable narrator. The reader cannot fully trust the narrator, and believe he is telling the whole truth. Throughout the story, the man tries to tell or impose on the reader that he is sane. He tries to explain to the reader that if he were crazy would he do something that a normal person would do or say. Throughout, the reader can see the different levels of insanity the author is trying to portray.…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Everyone has or will read an entire story just to find out who’s the murderer is or where the missing mother has gone to. One great example of this is the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” Edgar Allan Poe creates suspense by using dramatic irony, Slowing down the intensity and by unanswered question.…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Poe uses a common gothic narrative style such a first person narration and the setting of both stories to create tension and menace. In the Tell-tale Heart, Poe produces a narrator with an “psychopathic mind”. In the beginning of the story the narrator…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Tell Tale Heart, by Edward Allen Poe, exposes the mentality, ethics and internal struggles of a psychotic man. It is written from the point of view of a man who portrays himself of being mentally unstable. His logic and reasoning is an important role in supporting the notion that he is mentally ill. His logic revolves around instinct, and it lacks moral empathy. He acts on his emotions, and that is what causes him to find slaughtering an old man perfectly acceptable. He has no grudge against the old man; he even admits that he cares for him deeply. Ultimately, it wasn’t the old man that agitated him; it was the old man’s eye. “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” (Poe 6-8) It was the old man’s “vulture eye” that provoked his own murder. A vulture is known as a scavenger, and is looked upon as a very grotesque, unpleasant bird. This can be what caused the man’s sickening outlook of the old man’s eye. Nevertheless, it was his insanity which enhanced these feelings to the point where he felt that he had to kill the man. This decision clearly lacks the proper logic of a mentally stable person. Even though he argues that his actions were perceived from good judgment, and not provoked by a mental illness, when he pleads his case it only exposes his true insanity. “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work!”(Poe 9-10) He sees himself to be too…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays