An essay I wrote on Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Tell-Tale Heart".
A Question of Insanity
By LeAnn Jones (Modesty)
[1] Edgar Allan Poe writes extravagantly well of paranoia and the evil eye in his short story, The Tell-Tale Heart. But what exactly is the underlying problem? Are we to believe that a helpless old man, whom the narrator loves dearly, could be dismembered and internally hated by his caretaker? The narrators actions throughout the story, proves that it was not so much his fear of the evil eye, but his insanity that led him to commit this crime.
[2] Let us first examine the evil eye. According to Professor Alan Dundes, an anthropologist and folklorist at the University of California Berkeley
[3] We then come to investigate insanity. A student at Bryn Mawr College
[4] The narrator begins his story by telling us that he is dreadfully nervous (36) and refers to the situation as, the disease. (36) He believed the disease gave him the sense of hearing acute. (36) It is clearly recognizable within the first paragraph of the story that he is suffering from hallucinations, which is one symptom of schizophrenia and in turn represents insanity. Out of pure insanity he killed the old man. He had no motive but the penetrating glance of the old mans eye, as he clearly states, Object there was none. Passion there was none. (36).
[5] During the course of the story he goes on to explain how for seven nights straight he repeated the procedure of looking in on the old man. He wanted it to be perfect therefore it had to be painfully quiet. Each time he stuck his head in, the eye was closed and so he could not kill the old man. Another form of his hallucination is the fact he believes, for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. (36) We understand this type of behavior to be abnormal, seeing things that others do not.
[6] In detail he describes what he thinks the average person would laugh at, It took me an hour to place my whole head that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Would a madman have been so wise as this? (36) In all respect, only a madman would do this type of act for seven nights straight. And we must also remember that only a madman would say, Madmen know nothing. (36) And then proceed with saying a madman would not be that wise, thus trying to make himself non-comparable to a real madman altogether.
[7] He thought he was powerful as the old man had no idea whatsoever that the narrator was plotting his death, Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers. To think that there I was opening the door and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. (36) He lacked sagacity altogether because of his bad judgment. A madman would not understand the reasons behind why he operates the way he does.
[8] Poe uses words to express a madman's eagerness to commit a crime. He details his ventures quite stigmatically. What we, as normal society deem appropriate, Poe uses to literally assault our imagination. Using words multiple times all closed, closed (36), slowly very, very slowly (36), cautiously oh, so cautiously cautiously (36), all in vain. All in vain (37), a very, very little crevice (37), how stealthily, stealthily (37), open wide, wide open (37), It grew louder louder louder! (39) enables the reader to view the narrator as symbolically insane.
[9] While talking to the police, he says, I fancied a ringing in my ears at which point he begins to realize this ringing, was a low, dull, quick sound much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. (38-39) And it finally occurs to him that this ringing is the old mans heartbeat. How can this possibly be so when he dismembered the body? His conscience was guilt ridden for his crime and he was in a state of paranoia. Did the police really hear it? He began to think so as he accusingly thought, they were making a mockery of my horror! (39) And in the end, like a true paranoid schizophrenic that thinks the entire world is out to get them, he confesses, I admit the deed! Tear up the planks! It is the beating of his hideous heart! (39).
[10] Although it seems as though because the narrator has mentioned the Evil Eye, his insanity was due to his fear of the old mans glance, but we are taken further in by the story as it unfolds his schizophrenia and the details it entails. Why did the narrator kill the old man? Schizophrenia has no one single cause and scientists, to this day, are still conducting experiments in neurology for answers. I believe Poe intended for the narrator to be seen as insane without a purpose, a schizophrenic caretaker operating in the same fashion everyday until something snaps, thus leading to the old mans death. The old saying goes, An eye for an eye. In this case, it was the mans life. (998 words)
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. Literature: An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 3rd Compact Edition.New York
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