Edgar Allan Poe is a well-known master of macabre stories, saturated with Gothic atmosphere, madness, and decay. One example is “The Tell-Tale Heart,” similar to other authors’ works, such as “The Black Cat,” because of the murder and concealment motif. However, the story is distinctive insomuch as the wrongdoer is a vague silhouette. Not a sharp-cut figure whose appearance, past, and present are described in detail for a reader’s comprehension of the reason for a crime. Nonetheless, in my mind, I have created an image of a tremulous, yet spick-and-span man, working hard for low pay. Returning to the point of narration, the emphasis is shifted from the personality exteriors to the innermost constituents of the character, his or her thoughts, discourse, and emotions. For this part, Poe delivered an exquisite piece of text written in concise and still colorful language. For example, to intensify the character’s contentment with the creeping experience, the writer employs iterations: “how stealthy, stealthy” (Poe 94). Consequently, the language style and narrative demonstrate pathological meticulousness, treated by the character as a genius trait, but virtually it presents an obsession and an attempt to elevate self-esteem.
The narrator’s fixation on various petty pieces of reality, insignificant for an average person, is evident of obsession. Such details are the mysterious-looking eye of the old man, the ray of a lantern, the heartbeat thronging in the victim’s body, and the diseased mind of the murderer (Poe 93—96). All these elements are repeated in the narration multiple times: to make it obvious that the character is preoccupied regardless of his assertion that his reason is undamaged. Moreover, the insistence with which the notion of an intact mind is depicted proves the mentioned statement relating to the obsession. In my view, a man who is not afflicted with a mental illness, especially with the haunting ideas, would not try to refute “madness.” At least, he might discern differences between his understanding of reality and its parts and common sense to attempt to restrain from harm to the surrounding people. In contrast, the narrator could not remove the thought from the eye, waiting for the right moment to eliminate the problem (Poe 93). Thus, it is certain that the culprit was unsound and obsessed with details.
The next aspect of the character’s personality is fear, thoroughly concealed under the mask of fury or scrupulousness. For instance, the feelings toward the old man’s eye are described by the narrator: “whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold” (Poe 92). Next, in the scene before the murder, the emotion towards the lightened eye is fury, as well as towards the heartbeat of the frightened old man (Poe 93). I suggest that the perception of the obsessed person may be somewhat faulty. Namely, the character had changed his remembrance of the murderous deed and sensations before it unconsciously and later reproduced it in a way that would satisfy him. Fury may be a less undignified emotion than fear, according to the character’s belief. The other evidence is that he referred to “the groan of mortal terror” as a familiar and even frequent experience (Poe 93). The state of the murderer fluctuates continuously through his narration, contracting his assurance of firmness during the occurrence. Henceforth, the story that the narrator tries to produce is apocryphal, filled with lies or misremembrances.
Furthermore, the attempts to reassure the audience listening or reading the story are likely to serve as self-assertion for the murderer of his excellence in crime. Namely, the teller concentrates on one experience and constantly underlines his scrupulousness. He does not consider himself obsessed; he views his fixation as a result of sensational acuteness (Poe 93). He is joyful when he hid the corpse successfully (Poe 95). I suspect that the author put stress on the information related to the murder only for a particular purpose. The character may have an obsession and the determination that he is a perfect slayer, which grants him the right to commit homicide. In this way, he resembles Raskolnikov, a murderous character from Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” The crime’s reason is not the disturbing eye—it is a mere excuse, and invented cause; the objective may have been of a broader scale. The conditions of the apartment the man was inhabiting may have caused him to prove his right to a better life in such a violent and self-destructive way. In brief, the doubtful ideas of superiority or dignity might underlie the behavior of the character.
These notions suggest that the status of a poor man can result in mental illness. Moreover, individuals similar to the narrator try to rectify the reality according to the ideas that appear in their minds suddenly and become dominant. However, humans are still humans who cannot manage the guilt coming from brutal actions. This hidden sense in Poe’s work deepens it and differs from other short stories made for gaining profit, proving the author’s professionalism in describing humans’ maladies.
Reference
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The Oxford Book of American Short Stories, edited by C O Joyce, Oxford UP, 1992, pp. 91–96.