The story The Tell-Tale Heart written by Edgar Allen Poe, can be best summarized as a piece of gothic literature in which introduces the idea of a man going insane. In the beginning, it was only a mere obsession with an ‘evil eye’. The obsession itself, however, led to the murder of the man with the said ‘evil eye’. In short, this story is a clear representation of a transition into insanity. Given the details and plot development, it is clear to see that the narrator’s character develops from the transition of, to going completely insane, and whether or not he is a reliable source.
The transition into insanity begins with the narrator trying to convince himself of sanity when in reality it gives an impression of the opposite. In light of this information, there is a leeway into the narrator’s obsession with the old man’s ‘vulture eye’. It is not so much that the narrator fears the eye as much as it is what the eye represents. The eye represents the narrator’s identity in which the narrator is choosing to deny. He is not wanting to destroy the literal eye but instead himself, “what the narrator wishes to destroy is not the eye but that which sounds like ‘I’ which represents the self” (May). “Eyes are often viewed as a representative of one’s true nature” (Turner). In this case, the eye is seen as a mirror that the narrator does not want to face. To resolve this issue, the narrator plans to murder the old man believing that the riddance of the eye will bring peace to his mind.
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The fact that the narrator takes several days to plan the murder means that he is indeed still somewhat sane. The reason this is a telling sign that the narrator is still sane is that this proves that he was not impulsive. If the narrator were truly insane, he would have thrown caution to the wind and would have murdered the man with no plan. Even so, when the narrator does murder the man, he cuts up the body and hides the dismembered remains in the floorboards. Another detail that is often overlooked is the narrator’s very close attention to detail when replacing the floorboards. “I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye—not even his—could have detected anything wrong” (Poe). It is clear to see that the narrator’s descent into madness becomes more apparent as the story goes on.
The descent into madness truly rears its ugly head when the police come to the house to investigate the murder. When the police begin to question the narrator, at first, he complies with the policemen but after a few more questions he just loses it. He confesses to the murder and does so in a completely inappropriate manner out of guilt and remorse for the old man. “I foamed—I raved—I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting and grated it upon the boards” (Poe). The narrator gives clear reasons why he does not want to kill the old man, when he says, “Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult” (Poe). He is clearly referring his emotion toward the murder and how there was no passion upon the murder nor was there any reason other than the eye in which the reason for the murder was committed in the first place. The only thing keeping the old man below the ground, or in this case under the floorboards, was his eye in which there was nothing he could do about considering the timeframe this story’s setting is in.
Whether or not the narrator is a credible and reliable source is an interesting topic. Seeing how detailed the description of the murder was, it is safe to say that the narrator is a reliable but uncredible source. The reason for this is due to the fact that for a majority of the time, the narrator was clinically insane. While his recalling of the murder is incredibly detailed, he cannot be quoted because of his medical condition.
In the end, it is clear to see that the narrator was sane in the beginning, but not so much near the end. Sadly, the narrator’s obsession with the eye became too much and made him commit a murder. It was not that the narrator wanted to kill the man but just wanted to have peace of mind from the constant reminder of past events. It is hard to believe that a mere obsession can lead humanity to its own demise.
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