The Tell-Tale Heart

Reread “The Tell-Tale Heart” on pages 279-282. It can easily be found online. Also, read the biographical information on Edgar Allan Poe’s life (it may be relevant) and the three critical essays on pages 285-289.

In essay form (550-word minimum), give a reason for the protagonist’s killing the old man. This story is full of ambiguities. This requires you to use your critical thinking faculties. Your theories will vary a great deal, which I encourage, but consider the narrator’s psychological state. Is he a paranoid schizophrenic, as some critics have surmised? If so, support this with research. Remember—you must support your thesis (yes, you must have one) with quotations. Apa.org could be one useful resource.

I require at least one quotation from the short story (the primary source) and one quotation from a critical essay (secondary sources). If you prefer to use more quotations, that’s fine. Consider using the “sandwich technique” for introducing them. Also, use a signal phrase preceding your quotations, and include an in-text citation for each one. Signal phrases are always in present tense. Some of these include: writes, asserts, states, contends, argues, etc. NEVER uses “says.” The author wrote the short story; he did not “say” it.

Lastly, include a Works Cited page at the end of your essay; easybib.com can help you with this. I encourage you to use databases found in the Berkeley library. Bloom and Literature Resource Center is excellent. Never use Wikipedia, Shmoop, Spark Notes, etc. Use reliable sources. If you must go to Google, use a .edu source.  In addition, you may want to read a student paper on this short story (page 1413). That might help you understand what is expected. Also, don’t forget to go to the Purdue OWL for any questions you have regarding writing.

Please use a proper heading on the upper left-hand side of the page. That includes your name, my name, the name of the course and the date the paper is due. Give your essay a thought-provoking title, not Poe’s title, and center it. It should NOT be bolded, underlined, italicized, or in quotation marks. Do, however, capitalize major words. Include your last name and page number on the upper right-hand corner of every page, and STAPLE your essay. I only accept papers in hard copy.

Julissa Lizzette Garza

Derec Moore

ENGL 1302

February 25, 2020

The Tell-Tale Heart

Mental illness is a health condition that affects a person’s thinking, emotion, and behavior. In the Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe uses allegory, symbolism and imagery of an unnamed narrator to defuse the actions and explanation of mental illness. The anonymous narrator remains an unreliable narrator. It is evident the narrator is irrational and mentally unstable. The narrator starts as taking care of an elderly man with a bad eye. Later then decides to kill the old man and in the end; the narrator’s guilt became unbearable leading him to surrender to the officers.

In the Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe uses allegory of an unnamed narrator to defuse the actions and explanation of mental illness. An allegory could be a story, poem or picture that could divulge a hidden message or meaning. The narrator disobeys all privacy meant to be kept for a bedroom. The narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart uses a dark lantern to go unnoticed as he peaked through the old man’s room to watch him as he slept. (Poe) The bedroom is where one feels most vulnerable as they are unconscious. The narrator violated all bedroom rules by infiltrating the old man’s room standing over him while he slept. Somnophilia is a type of fetish where people get off by watching other humans sleep, as what the narrator did. The narrator went into the old man’s room every midnight for seven days. This entails that the narrator felt compassion toward the character to keep returning as the old man was unaware.

In the Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism of an unnamed narrator to defuse the actions and explanation of mental illness. The eye is part of the old man the narrator could not accept. The eye symbolizes the narrator’s frenzy and obsession. “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.” (Poe) As the narrator began to take care of the old man, he began to loathe the eye. The eye was referred as the “vulture eye”, a bird staring him or her down. One night the narrator waited in the old man’s room and the old man woke up shouting “who’s there”. As the old man sat up the narrator saw the eye and grew instant anger towards the eye; at that moment the anonymous narrator knew the eye had to be killed. The narrator approached the old man and covered his face with the bed. Suffocating him, leaving no air way flow to breathe. In minutes the old man was dead. After checking the old man’s pulse, the narrator then chopped up his corpse and hid it underneath a board that shaped the floor. Walla Laini Kawisa was charged with numerous numbers of murders taken place at night, in the victim’s homes. (Brietzke) The narrator made the decision to kill the old man because he felt the need to get rid of the taunting eye that made the character skin crawl. Biased is an unfair judgement. For example, you own a restaurant and you think your food is better than anyone else’s because it is your restaurant. The narrator concluded taking the old man’s life based on its personal feelings. The narrator believed the old man’s eye was a bother. Not only did the anonymous narrator feel uncomfortable everyday but also felt there would be a huge weight off his or her chest if the eye was no longer in sight. Based on the his or her own feelings; it made the narrator take the initiative to proceed with the murder. Despite knowing the old man was innocent and harmless.

In the Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery of an unnamed narrator to defuse the actions and explanation of mental illness. Auditory imagery is used to explain sounds. “But the beating grew louder, louder!” (Poe) As the narrator goes nuts, the speaker grows an obsession for the loud heartbeat he or she hears from the old man. The recurrence of the heartbeat is what drove the speaker to surrender to the officers. There was a knock on the door and he or she went downstairs to see who appeared at the door; three police officers. A neighbor reported strange crying from an old man. The narrator mentioned to the officers the cry had come from himself/herself; the old man had gone to visit a friend, he was not home. The longer the officers stayed in the house chitchatting the louder the old man’s heartbeat grew. The narrator could no longer bear the sound of the old man’s heartbeat causing him to confess to the officers where he put the old man’s body. Guilty conscience can cause people to kill or commit suicide. It can provoke anger and emptiness, affect someone’s relationship, happiness or future. (Brice) If guilt is not handled properly it can also affect your thinking skills causing paranoia and delusion. The narrator knew he or she had committed a crime. The speaker thought he or she solved the taunting eye by murdering the old man. In reality, what the narrator thought would be peace, the old man’s presence still haunted him making him hallucinate and delusional of the sounds being heard.

In the Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator wrestles with insanity driving him or her to commit heinous crimes. The narrator tries to normalize his actions to hide his mental illness. “First of all I dismembered the corpse.” (Poe) Looking at the old man’s abnormal eye caused the speaker to take death upon his or her own hands. Deciding to kill to elderly man. In conclusion Edgar Allan Poe builds the thrill and tension between the narrator causing him or her to lose their mind. If the narrator was not crazy, he or she would have nor either killed the old man or started hearing things. If the narrator had not started hearing sounds he or she would have never surrender to the officers.

Works Cited

“Bias.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bias.

Brice-Montas, Jean M. “GUILTY CONSCIENCE/BAD CONSCIENCE.” Bricefoundation, Brice Foundation International, 8 June 2019, www.bricefoundation.org/single-post/2019/06/08/GUILTY-CONSCIENCEBAD-CONSCIENCE.

Brietzke, Paul. “The Chilobwe Murders Trial.” African Studies Review, vol. 17, no. 2, 1974, pp. 361–379. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/523638. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.

Corner, Emily, et al. “Mental Disorders, Personality Traits, and Grievance-Fueled Targeted Violence: The Evidence Base and Implications for Research and Practice.” Journal of Personality Assessment, vol. 100, no. 5, Sept. 2018, pp. 459–470. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00223891.2018.1475392.

Doctorow, E. L. “Our Edgar.” Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 82, no. 4, Fall 2006, pp. 240–247.EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&db=pbh&AN=22896688&site=ehost-live.

Tierney, Zoe. “Strange Sexuality: A Closer Look at Somnophilia.” Mindcology, Mindcology, 20 Nov. 2018, mindcology.com/mental-health/closer-look-somnophilia/.