preview

The Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

Better Essays

A Guilty- Mad Heart

“Burduck then goes on to ponder how Poe used cultural anxieties and psychological panic to advantage.” (Grim Phantasms, G.A. Cevasco). In The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, a nameless man narrates the story of how he murdered an elderly man because of his eyes. In his short story The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe shows the themes of guilt and the descent into madness through the narrator, in this gothic horror story. Edgar Allan Poe wrote many gothic tales throughout his life and he does not disappoint with The Tell-Tale Heart for through this murder story Poe shows the descent into madness through the narrator. “ The story 's narrator himself cannot satisfactorily articulate his motivation for stalking and murdering an apparently kind old man. Because the "mad" narrator 's explanation of his motive--"I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it"” ( Robert M. Kachur, Buried). It is quite obvious why the narrator is mad, for he murders the elderly man because of his pale blue eyes. The narrator was not always mad tho, one line from the story shows this. “ It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night” ( Poe, The Tell Tale Heart). Has no personal animosity toward him, does not want his money, has not been injured by him. Instead, he says he wishes to kill the old man because of his eye. ( Charles E. May, The

Get Access