Introduction
Edgar Alan Poe is known for his unique stories and style, which have always attracted numerous readers. The author’s extraordinary life and individuality shaped the stories he narrated to others. The themes of death, egoism, sanity, evil, and ego are prevalent in his numerous novels. He manages to create a unique and dark atmosphere. At the same time, his works can be considered psychological thrillers due to their unusual plot development and endings.
Thus, the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” also exhibits these characteristics, as it presents a murder narrative told by a person who confesses to his guilt. However, their mental health is questioned because of the manner of thinking and obsessive ideas impacting the hero. The novel offers ample space for analyzing the narrator’s psychological peculiarities and understanding their motifs.
Narrator
Thus, as stated previously, “The Tell-Tale Heart” revolves around the themes of ego, sanity, and death. The events are described by an unreliable narrator who wants to present the story from their perspective. The first word, “True!” indicates that the hero intends to emphasize the honesty of the words, yet they are aware that people might doubt them (Poe). It can be viewed as a concession, implying that a conversation has already begun and the speaker is attempting to clarify their position (Alsahafi 3).
Thus, Poe does not use pronouns that might help to determine the main character’s sex. It makes the narrator more mysterious and unclear to readers, which is essential for understanding the plot. Being unnamed, the hero tells their story in an attempt to prove their sanity, which is necessary for creating the atmosphere.
Struggle
Poe’s short story can also be viewed as a description of the character’s struggle. The narrator struggles against their own obsessions and thoughts that press in on them. For instance, the eye and the heart are oddly detached from the whole story and acquire a life of their own (Studniarz 109). It helps to realize the narrator’s obsession with them, their anxiety, and their inability to stop thinking about these elements. They constantly mention the eye, describing it and saying it irritates them.
Moreover, the narrator confesses, “it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye” (Poe). The heart is another obsession that impacts the hero and their actions. They can hear that “hideous heart,” which helps discover the truth about the murder (Poe). In this way, the narrator struggles with their obsessions and their inability to stop thinking about them.
External and Internal Pressures
In this way, upon reading the story, it becomes clear that the hero struggles against both internal and external pressures. For instance, the narrator asks, “Why will you say that I am mad?” to convince others that they are sane (Poe). At the same time, attempts to prove this fact can be understood in relation to Freud’s concept of the id (109). It implies impulsive or subconscious desires and acts to satisfy instincts and pleasures (Freud 109). As a result, the narrator acts on their own and follows their desires; however, they do not want others to doubt their mental health, as it would undermine the critical nature of their act. For this reason, the clash between internal and external pressures leads to the emergence of severe mental issues.
Evolution of Struggle and Pressures
The story also shows how the struggle and obsession evolve, and how the narrator’s psychological state worsens as they contribute to their own suffering. For the narrator, it is more essential to prove that they are sane than to prove that they are innocent. They say, “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me” (Poe).
Moreover, the hero emphasizes how skillful they are: “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body” (Poe). However, they also admit that, despite these skills and the successful concealment of the body, the heart was what led to the disclosure. At the story’s start, the narrator hears its sounds and responds to them. However, in the end, they realized that “noise was not within my ears” (Poe). It shows that the mental condition progresses as far as the external pressure and stress become more serious.
It means that Poe’s character fails to resist pressures and struggles against their obsessions. They admit it was impossible to ignore the heart’s sounds as “It grew louder — louder — louder!” (Poe). Moreover, new obsessive ideas emerged among the officers, suggesting that they also heard these sounds. “Almighty God! — no, no! They heard! — they suspected! — they knew!” (Poe). The pressure became impossible to resist, and the narrator cried, “I admit the deed!” (Poe). They know that, by following the social expectations of the time, they would be punished; however, they obey.
It demonstrates the main character’s inability to control their emotions and resist external and internal pressures. Hallucinations promoted because of guilt, anxiety, and obsessions resulted in the emergence of new obsessive ideas and the belief that everyone knows about their crime. In this way, the story can be viewed as a description of the narrator’s illness, from the emergence of the first symptoms to its culmination and conclusion.
Possible Diagnosis
In such a way, the narrator suffers from numerous psychological problems. They try to reassure others that they have nothing wrong with them and that their state is normal. At the same time, the hero suffers from obsessive ideas, illusions, and sound hallucinations.
The main character experienced the feeling of a false narrative and corrupted reality, which is usually associated with schizophrenia (Arika, Shaikh, and Sadenwasser). Today, psychologists might use the narrator’s symptoms to assess their mental condition and provide appropriate treatment. Thus, schizophrenia cannot be treated completely; however, there are methods to reduce the severity of symptoms and help a person to remain a part of society. As for Poe’s character, their schizophrenia progressed and made a person commit a crime and confess.
The Story’s Critique
The importance of the psychological aspect and the idea of ego for the story is also supported by numerous critics. For instance, Ki analyzes the short story from the perspectives of the ego and the eye as representations of a person’s inner world and their personality. The concepts of “eye” and “I” are closely interconnected, revealing the nature of problems that impact an individual (Ki 26).
The narrator’s complex “I” evolves from their eye, perverse voyeurism, and scopophilia, or the desire to structure the pleasure by the eye (Ki 26). Combined with the complex psychological state, it leads to new problems and the development of even more complicated conditions. It proves the relevance of the psychological approach to analyzing Poe’s character.
The complexity of the main character’s mental health is also discussed from another perspective. For instance, Pritchard views the narrator as a bipolar being who is divided by the love for a person and the desire to kill him (145). This division is the source of the inner conflict and the basis for the growing, fast-evolving conflict.
Furthermore, the critic associates the narrator’s egocentrism with sadomasochism (Pritchard 146). It explains the hero’s desire to provide numerous details about the crime and explain its perfection (Pritchard 146). In this way, Poe’s character suffers from the deep divide that exists within them. The narrator is a bipolar creature suffering from a clash of desires and conflicts within them, which makes the situation even worse.
Conclusion
Altogether, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Alan Poe is one of the short stories with a unique atmosphere. The main character struggles against external and internal pressures. The desire to prove their sanity and the confession of committing the crime contradict each other.
Obsession with the ideas of eye and heart deteriorates a person’s mental condition and leads to the emergence of critical conflict and murder. Hallucinations become real, and the narrator cannot resist them, being sure that everyone else hears them. The symptoms might indicate schizophrenia, a complex mental illness that requires much attention because of its risks and severe impact on people’s behavior. Thus, in his short story, Poe successfully creates a distinct atmosphere and a character with different features, using psychological analysis to understand the motifs and the overall narrative.
Works Cited
Alsahafi, Morad. “A Narrative Discourse Analysis of Poe’s Short Story “The Tell-Tale Heart”: Implications for Language Teaching.” English Language Teaching, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1-17.
Arika, Shaikh, and Tim Sadenwasser. “Portrayal of Mental Illness in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The Arsenal: The Undergraduate Research Journal of Augusta University, vol. 3, no. 2, 2020.
Freud, Sigmund. Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners. James A. McCann Co., 1920.
Ki, Magdalen Wing-chi. “Ego-Evil and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Renascence, vol. 61, no. 1, 2008, pp. 25-39.
Poe, Edgar Alan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The Poe Museum.
Pritchard, Hollie. “Poe’s the Tell-Tale Heart.” The Explicator, vol. 61, no. 3, 2003, pp. 141-147.
Studniarz, Stawomir. “The Method in the Madness: “The Tell-Tale Heart” and the Horror of the Human Condition” Poe Studies, vol. 54, 2021, pp. 107-126.