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Internal Conflict In The Tell Tale Heart

Decent Essays

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, is a short story about a man with internal conflict and a guilty conscience. The story opens up with the man explaining his guilty conscience for murdering an old man. The narrator is unnamed and suffers from paranoia but tries to convince the readers that he is sane. The narrator is not reliable and his statements are imaginary because he contradicts himself multiple times. The story begins with the narrator on the defense. The narrator claims he is sane and then confesses that he killed an old man. "I loved the old man," says the narrator, "He had never wronged me" he adds. He then reveals that he has an obsession the old man's eye — "the eye of a vulture — a pale blue eye, with a film over it." Without any real thought he decides to take the old man's life. By the narrator's goal in presenting his side of the story is to try and convince the reader that he is sane even though he killed someone. This murderous act has no decent reason behind it which shows that the narrator is insane, even though he claims he is sane. …show more content…

. . louder [and] louder." The narrator believes that the old man's heart was beating so loud that the neighbors could hear it. This is another example as to why the narrator is unreliable and imaginary. We all know that it is impossible for a heart to beat so loud that it can be heard from another house. The narrator claims that it is the heartbeat of the old man’s but doesn't take into consideration that the heartbeat can be coming from his own guilty and terrified heart. He doesn't want to come to face with the fact that he is insane for killing an old man. He then puts a mattress over the man as an attempt to convince the reader how wise he is from taking this

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