The Tell-Tale Heart Critical analysis
...rrator is in conflict with himself. He admits that his life contained no passion and was driven by madness, a disease that sharpened his senses. The audience comes across another conflict when the narrator admits that he is going to kill the old man because one of his eyes was the eye of the vulture. The eye was also a reflection of self and when the speaker looked into the old man’s blue eye he saw something evil in the pits of his soul. Another conflict we see is when the speaker executed his plan of murder and chopped up the old man’s body and placed it in the floor. However, a neighbor reported a disturbance and the police showed up at the speaker’s house. The speaker very calmly entertained the police officers by answering their questions. Being very confident the speaker even invited the police officers into the room which he had killed the old man and placed his body in the floor. But as time passed the speaker begins to hear a loud and afflicting noise that only affected him and not the police officers. Losing all tolerance he finally admitted his crime to police officers. Only one could speculate what was the noise that drove him to confessing (Fatima, The Tel Tale Heart). We are well aware that the protagonist is indirectly characterized. One must deduce what he is like by what he says and does, although in this example the two are contradicting. The narrator insists that he is not insane when he says, “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!” (Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell Tale Heart). Yet it is not oblivious by his actions. The fact that he killed an innocuous old man because of his so called evil eye clearly indicates that he is neurotic and psychologically imbalanced. The narrator’s motivation for killing the man is conspicuously difficult to understand. “It is impossible to say how the first idea entered my brain... Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire” (Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell Tale Heart). Poe’s Tell Tale Heart follows somewhat the same motif as his other stories. The Tell Tale Heart is complete with strong vision, subtle insincerity and vivid imagery. The imagery and irony lead to an enormously improved tale. The beginning paragraph itself is full of over shadowing. True! Nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous. I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story (Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell Tale Heart). The first paragraph foreshadows the destiny of the narrator. It is however ironic that we do not know what happens to him but we know that it is sacrilegious. Another example of foreshadowing is in the second paragraph. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! 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 mysel...