Through the first person narrator, Edgar Allan Poes “The Tell-Tale Heart” illustrates how mans imagination is capable of being so vivid that it profoundly affects peoples lives. The manifestation of the narrators imagination unconsciously plants seeds in his mind, and those seeds grow into an unmanageable situation for which there is no room for reason and which culminates in murder. The narrator takes care of an old man with whom the relationship is unclear, although the narrators comment of “For his gold I had no desire” (Poe 34) lends itself to the fact that the old man may be a family member whose death would monetarily benefit the narrator. Moreover, the narrator also intimates a caring relationship when he says, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult” (34).
The narrators obsession with the old mans eye culminates in his own undoing as he is engulfed with internal conflict and his own transformation from confidence to guilt. The fixation on the old mans vulture-like eye forces the narrator to concoct a plan to eliminate the old man.
The narrator confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye: “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees very gradually I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever” (34).
The narrator begins his tale of betrayal by trying to convince the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the narrator indeed is out of control. The fact that the old mans eye is the only motivation to murder proves the narrator is so mentally unstable that he must search for justification to kill. In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye. The narrator wrestles with conflicting feelings of responsibility to the old man and feelings of ridding his life of the mans “Evil Eye” (34).
The Essay on Evil Eye Narrator Man Story
... eye and the sound of the mans beating heart races into the room and kills the man in his bed. After the murder, the narrator ... in and out of a persons mind. This is obvious in the obsessions that the narrator has in Goes short story. Whether ... to this. With this in mind, the reader has no choice but to declare the narrator insane. The narrator struggles to cope with ...
Although afflicted with overriding fear and derangement, the narrator still acts with quasi-allegiance toward the old man; however, his kindness may stem more from protecting himself from suspicion of watching the old man every night than from genuine compassion for the old man. The narrator shows his contrariety when he confesses he loves the old man, but he is still too overwhelmed by the pale blue eye to restrain himself from the all-consuming desire to eliminate the eye.
His struggle is evident as he waits to kill the old man in his sleep so that he wont have to face the old man when he kills him; but on the other hand, the narrator cant justify the killing unless the vulture eye was open. The narrator is finally able to kill the man because “I saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old mans face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot” (35).
The mission of the narrator begins with meticulous planning and confidence, but ultimately his guilty conscience creates his downfall. For seven days, the narrator watches the old man while he sleeps and he even “chuckled at the idea” that the old man knows nothing of the narrators “secret deeds or thoughts” (35).
The narrators comments show his confidence and audacity, even pride, in his plan to kill: “Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph” (34-35).
The narrators assurance in his evil deed continued even when the police came to check on the old man and investigate the loud noises neighbors heard the night before: “I smiled,for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome” (36).
However, the narrators mind is quickly consumed with guilt, which creates his delusion of hearing the old mans heartbeat taunting him from under the flooring. His paranoia makes the heart beat “louder louder louder!” and in his state of delirium he confesses to killing the old man in hopes of ridding his life of the menacing heartbeat: “I felt that I must scream or die! and now []” (37).
The Essay on A Man Who Had No Eyes
Artist’s Statement I chose “A Man Who Had No Eyes” to illstrate because the cover of the short story was very eye-catching. The cover is black and white with an old man holding a cane and a hat. He looks very sad and helpless and the background is very dark and gloomy. The whole atmosphere of the picture made me wonder what happened to this old man. This is the reason why I chose this story. The ...
The narrator sets out to rid his life of the fear he created by obsessing over the mans eye, but once that fear is destroyed, another fear that of the heartbeat is created and becomes more overwhelming than the first. In playing mind games with himself seeing how far he can push himself to triumph over his own insanity the narrator slips further into a fantasy world. His overriding confidence in killing the man ultimately turns into overriding guilt even as he justifies in his mind the savage killing, chopping up the body and placing it under the floorboards. The narrators imagination creates his need and plan to destroy the eye, but it then creates the need to save himself from the heartbeat that drives him over the edge.
Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.
7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 33-37..
