"A Tell-Tale Heart" Tells a Tale Indeed
“The Tell-Tale Heart” Indeed Tells A Tale Edgar Allan Poe 's “A Tell-Tale Heart” is a first person account of a mad man as he justifies, plans, and commits murder. The tale begins with the speaker, a nameless man, explaining that he is not insane but, instead, a thoughtful and logical man who is taunted by his old friend 's deformed eye and, in turn, is left with no choice but to “take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever” (Poe 1245). Poe’s colorful prose takes the reader on a journey inside the psyche of a fervent killer as he gives into his need to commit a dark deed which then leads to his capitulation. While the story itself is not complicated, in fact it is quite to-the-point, there are several underlying factors which merit closer examination. Throughout the duration of the narrative the speaker expresses that which the reader is sure to assume, “You fancy me mad” (Poe 1245); a proclamation which he goes to great lengths to disprove by asserting examples of his so-called good judgment, wisdom, and calm, collected demeanor. However, there are several points in the story which provide a solid counterargument against this claim. In the very first paragraph the speaker references his “disease” (Poe 1245), which has increased his senses; most specifically his hearing. He goes on to state, “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell” (Poe 1245). This observation is testament to the narrator 's twisted and delusional sense of sapience and conveys to the reader just how conflicted he actually is. The disease, of which Poe 's narrator speaks, appears to be the affectation of a cold-blooded murderer who must satisfy his urge to kill. Furthermore, he appears to claim that he hears voices which perpetuate his false sense of “sagacity” (Poe 1245). Overall the reader is left with the image of a man whom, despite his reasoning and calculated logic, is driven by a false sense of higher power and a
Cited: Poe, Edgar Allan. “A Tell-Tale Heart.” Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. 5th ed. Ed. John Schlib and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 1244-48. Print.