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Interpretation

Edgar Allan Poe The Tell-Tale Heart

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Interpretation
Englisch

Ruhr-Universität Bochum - RUB

1,7 2015

Isabell S. ©
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Edgar Allan Poe The Tell-Tale Heart

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1. Introduction

In his horrific short story The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe illustrates the psychology of the protagonist ,who is a mad murderer, by giving him the function of the first-person narrator. Furthermore, he uses certain elements like style, structure and also imagery to open the reader the “world” of an insane man.


This paper will analyze the function of the narrator and focuses on characterization according to the point of view, the narrator`s utterances referring to content, syntax and punctuation, his self-justification and his motive for murder. It will be proofed that the topic of this tale is not the crime or who committed it.

The main topic is the psychological state of the killer and how he tries to deny his insanity.


2.The narrator

2.1. Point of view and characterization

The story begins “in media res, in the mid of things.”1 The narrator is like a disembodied voice because he has no “real” identity. One do not get to know anything about him like his name, his job, his age etc. The old man`s identity is also not specified. Both men live together in a house but their relationship is unknown.

The reader only gets to know what the narrator is telling him because there is no authorial point of view. The only perspective is the personal one which is used for impersonating the characters.2 This explicit characterization leads to a lack of identity and indefiniteness and makes it easier for the reader to feel addressed by the speaker.

It is like they are communicating with each other and that makes the reader able to recognize the speakers feelings, thoughts and his insanity.3


2.2. Utterances

The narrator has a conversation with the reader and tries to persuade him that he is not insane. He explains what madness is and says that a mad person is not able to communicate. Whereas, he cannot be insane, because he has the ability to tell the whole story “calmly”4 and “healthy”5.

In other words, he claims that a linguistic ability is a proof for a psychological normalcy. 6 Nevertheless, the narrator is not successful in boasting of his cleverness. He is contradictory because on the one hand he tries to persuade that he is sane and on the other hand he says that “[t]he disease had sharpened [his] senses”.7 Additionally, he claims that he can hear “all things in the heaven and in the earth”8 what also emphasizes his insanity.

His utterances are paradox and it shows that there is a dissimilarity between the sane narrator and the madman. There is a discrepancy “between his representing and represented personae.”9 Hence, the murderer has multiple personalities and suffers from schizophrenia.


2.2.1. Syntax and punctuation

The unreliable narrator opens the story with ellipses and there is a high frequency of hyphens in his interrupted sentences. In truth, he is extremely nervous and excited. Syntax and punctuation are used to show his mental jumping and quick associations.10 Besides, the syntactical repetitions show the “over-acuteness of his senses”11.

After the crime he can hear the old man´s heart beat “louder [and] louder!”12. The narrator argues that his hypersensitivity is a proof for his sanity. In fact, it is not the old man`s heart but it is his own one. The narrator is ruled by his paranoia and even confesses his crime to the police officers.

More specifically, Edgar Allan Poe uses stylistic devices in the utterances of his unnamed narrator in order to accentuate his paranoia and its influence on him.


Although, the narrator is ruled by his paranoia he still tries to justify his sanity. He claims that he is sane because of his knowledge. He says that “[m]admen know nothing”13 but he has an increasing knowledge. He maintains that an insane person is not able to accomplish such a crime like he does.

He plans and makes preparations for the crime and observes patiently the sleeping old man for seven nights. Besides, he also claims that he knows his victims mind even the exact words of his thoughts and feelings.


His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless,

but could not. He had been saying to himself- “It is nothing but the wind in the chimney- it is

only a mouse crossing the floor” or “it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp.” Yes, he has been trying to comfort himself with these supposition;



2.4. Motive of the murderer

The narrator feels troubled by his victims “Evil eye”15 and tries to get rid of it. For this purpose, he decides to kill the old man and his only motive is a “vulture- a pale blue eye , with a film over it”16. There is no passion or profit for him and although the narrator “loves the old man”17 he feels terrorized by his eye.

The narrator reduces the man´s identity to his eye and sees it as a completely separated part of him. On that account, the murderer is motiveless and his reaction is even paradox. He kills somebody that he loves and this makes no sense so in fact, it is again a hint for the narrator´s insanity.


3. Conclusion

To sum up, one can say that The Tell-Tale Heart is not a detective story although it deals with a cold-blooded murder. The central point of the tale is not to resolve the crime or to catch the offender. Though, these information are all given they are not essential and they just belong to the background action.

The author is able to create a short story in which the narrator`s paranoid schizophrenia is perfectly shown. On the one hand the narrator is the killer and is guilty but on the other hand he is the victim of his own disease. In conclusion, the author offers the reader the terror of madness and cruelty.

1Kenneth Silverman, ed., New Essays on Poe´s Major Tale (Cambridge: CUP,1995),30.

2Jonathan Auerbach, The Romance of Failure: First-Person Fiction of Poe,Hawthorne, and James (New York: OUP, 1989) 21-26.

3Cf. Silverman 30.

4Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart: The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Penguin, 1982) 303.

5Poe 303.

6Harold Bloom, ed., Modern Critical Interpretations:The Tales of Poe (USA: Chelsea House Publishers,1987) 141.

8Poe 303.

9Bloom 141.

10Cf. Silverman 31.

11Poe 305.

12Poe 306.

13Poe 303.

14Cf. Silverman 33.

15Poe 303.

16Poe 303.

17Poe 303.


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