The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart

This text is a short story or tale written by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is well known for his mixed horror, mystery and macabre tales, which often deals with death . It begins by telling how frightened and nervous the unnamed narrator of the tale is. We are never told if the narrator is a man or a woman, but we will assume that the narrator is a man. He puts much emphasis on telling that he has not gone mad, but is instead completely sane. We do not know who the narrator is talking to. It could be a psychiatrist, judge or maybe himself, but the person is unidentified.

This tale begins in media res, because it seems like, the reader is falling in to a conversation, which has already begun. The narrator is about to define his huge problem with the old man's eye of a vulture, even though the old man has never wronged him. When he tells the story, he keeps repeating that he is sane and defiantly not mad. This chosen quote shows that something is defiantly wrong with the narrator's mind and psyche, which will be deepened afterwards: "TRUE! - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?... How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily - how calmly I can tell you the whole story."

As you can see, repetitions as "very, very" occur. He truly wants to tell the person something in a sort of premature way. Therefore, he reinforces his claims by making repetitions, which puts pressure on his hope to convince the person, he talks to. You can feel a desperate call of help from the narrator. He repeats the words: "Am I mad?", as if he wants to convince himself too. By making these repetitions, he speaks the word against himself: "observe how healthily - how calmly I can tell you the whole story." As said before; he is so desperate to explain, how innocent and clean he is. That is a typical trait or characteristic of psychopaths or just people in general, who have done something illegal insane. They try so desperately to convince people about, how their actions have happened in a healthily and calm way that it becomes suspicious. He finds it completely natural making up his mind killing the old man, "and thus rid myself of the eye forever." He is selfish for sure!

His selfishness comes back to him, when three policemen knock on his door. He let them in, but suddenly he fancies a ringing in his head, and the sounds become more distinct. To give it the right clue and mood of the tale, Poe describes the sounds very nearly. Ultimately, the narrator's ability to distinguish between real and imagined sounds is weakened. It is the sounds of his own heart beating, he hears, as if everything rises to his head. The title is ironic, because Poe makes you think, this story is told from the heart. The beating heart is actually complicit in the plot to catch the narrator in