Essay about “The Tell-Tale Heart” - 1448 Words

â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† by Edgar Allan Poe is a first-person narrative short story that features a disguised-cum-mysterious narrator. The narrator does not reveal any interest while proving his innocence regarding the murder of the old man. Moreover, he makes us believe that he is in full control of his mind but yet suffering from a disease that causes him over acuteness of the senses. As we go through the story, we can find his obsession in proving his sanity. The narrator lives with an old man, who has a clouded, pale blue, vulture-like eye that makes him so vulnerable that he kills the old man. He confesses that there was no interest, no passion whatsoever in killing the old man, whom he loved. Throughout the story, the narrator directs†¦show more content†¦One of the fascinating aspects of this story is that it remains indistinguishable to whom the narrator is addressing his appeal to be found sane. It may be the police; or more likely a judge; or can also be t he warden of the prison; or even a group of people gathered to witness him hung up during his execution (Tucker 95). Instead of attempting to prove his innocence, the narrators long monologue becomes a case in which he tries to prove his sanity. Moreover, he tries to defend his sanity by explaining how wise and cautious he was as he was preparing for the murder. Every night he checked on the old man to make sure he got everything right and get ready to execute his plan. The narration lacks of a concrete explanation of the person or place to which it is addressed, which leaves much room for interpretation for the readers. What we can infer from the story is it is not addressed to the police officers since the narrator says he was successful in making them satisfied. Finally, the climax of the story comes as the revelation of the dead body hidden under the planks. Because the story is told as a memento, our estimation might be that the narrator is addressing a court official or person age who may influence over the judgment of the narrator. Therefore, the story that the narrator is telling is most accurately realized as an appeal for mercy ratherShow MoreRelatedThe Tale the Heart Tells523 Words   |  2 PagesMany a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt and pitied him although I chuckled at heart† (Poe 2). The narrator sees the man as his double through such an emphasis on their similar features, which later becomes crucial as the narrator feels the need for the displacement of his fear. The fact that the old man’s fear is warranted due toRead MoreEssay on The Tell-Tale Heart852 Words   |  4 PagesAndrew Fiddler Professor Esquivel English 1020 15 February 2013 Themes of â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† Edgar Allen Poe explores the similarity of love and hate in many stories, especially â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart.† In â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart,† the narrator confesses a love for an old man whom he then violently murders and dismembers the body and hides the pieces below the floorboards in the bedroom. When the police arrive, the narrator appears normal and unshaken by the murder. Later on, the man gives inRead MoreEssay on The Tell Tale Heart655 Words   |  3 PagesThe Insane Killer One of Edgar Allan Poe’s most terrifying tales is â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart†. Poe’s life was tragic because many of the women that Edgar Allan Poe loved very much had died of tuberculosis- his mother, his foster mother, his wife Virginia, and the men in his life kept abandoning him, so that made him dark and depressed. That darkness shows in a lot of his stories, including this one. â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† is a story about a murder the narrator commits. He kills an old man becauseRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart Essay1015 Words   |  5 PagesBeating Heart With a descriptive epistle of murder and insanity, â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† threw itself into history as a classic. The narrator tells of his plot to murder an old man with a â€Å"vulture eye.† Although he sneaks into his bedroom, night after night, he still cannot murder the old man, because he loves the man, but hates the eye. When seeing the vulture eye on the eighth night, he murders the old man and dismembers his body. While insisting upon his sanity he hears the old man’s heart beatingRead MoreTell Tale Heart Essay1367 Words   |  6 PagesIn â€Å"Tell Tale Heart,† Edgar Allen Poe develops the plot and creates a mood through the use of metaphors, symbolism, imagery, and foreshadowing. The unique use of said literary devices enables the story to strongly entice the reader’s interest and spark high levels of curiosity. The vivid mental pieces of art are beautifully painted with metaphors, symbolism, and imagery, the tools mastered by the p ainter, Edgar Allen Poe. The initial analysis will be that of the old man’s eye. Mr. Poe uses veryRead More A Hanging and A Tell-Tale Heart1541 Words   |  7 Pagescharacters of the guard from George Orwell’s â€Å"A Hanging† and the servant from Edgar Allen Poe’s â€Å"A Tell-Tale Heart†, they both experience the act of taking another person’s life. The guard from â€Å"A Hanging† works at a prison in Burma where felons await execution. His job is to lead the convicted men to their doom and makes sure everything goes routinely and swift. While the servant from â€Å"A Tell-Tale Heart† is a psychopathic man who lets his obsession over his boss’s glasseye lead him to plot and carryRead More The Tell Tale Heart Essay1656 Words   |  7 PagesIn the â€Å"Tell-Tale Heart† by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is extremely uncanny due to the reader’s inability to trust him. Right from the beggining the reader can tell that the narrator is crazy although the narrator does proclaim that he is sane. Since a person cannot trust a crazy person, the narrator himself is unreliable and therefore uncanny. Also as the story progress the narrator falls deeper and deeper into lunacy making him more and more unreliable, until the end of the story where the narratorRead MoreAnalysis Of The Tell Tale Heart 1110 Words   |  5 Pagesdespicable villains are marked with indifference towards their moral reprehensibility. â€Å"In the Penal Colony† and â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† both elucidate the idea that corruption, darkness, and immorality alike are unperceivable to the one afflicted. However, while â€Å"In the Penal Colony† suggests that this blind nature is a result of dutiful honor, responsibility, and hope, â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† alternatively submits that it is a result of the possibility of fulfillment. Distinction between bothRead MoreThe Tell-Tale Heart Confession593 Words   |  2 PagesProbably not, but most americans have had this issue in that past. The narrator in â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† had the same exact same problem during his span as a butler. â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† is a short story composed about a butler that murders his master because he didn’t liked the way his master’s eye looked when it was open. The meaning of the title â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart†, means that every heart has a tale to tell. At the ending of the story the narrator openly admits that he killed his master to policeRead MoreThe Black Cat And The Tell Tale Heart957 Words   |  4 Pages the manner in which he expressed these emotions was his brilliantly horrifying short stories. In the two short stories â€Å"The Black Cat† and â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† Poe uses characterization to portray the guilt of the narrator. â€Å"The Black Ca t† short story’s writing has a morbid effect on readers and describes the torments of guilt. In â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† Poe explores the effects of the subconscious mind, the suppressing of guilt and the narrator’s guilt forcing him to confess.† â€Å"The Black Cat† is