Critical Analysis of the Story ‘Tell Tale

Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe

By: Husain Necklace

Al Jamea Saifiyah Arabic Academy
 Introduction
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most Gothic short story writer of the nineteenth century. He
was a predominant figure of the Romantic Movement in American literature and is regarded as the
inventor of the detective story.

He has had a very hard life. His father left him and his mother a few years later after his
birth. His mother then died due to tuberculosis. His wife – Virginia – died similarly. The recurring
themes in his works – the death of women, bereavement, horror, madness, premature burial, decay,
revival of the dead, life after death – are suggested to have resulted from his own life which – as
mentioned – was a sequence of tragic events and frequent abandonments. Poe skilfully weaved
these themes into his meticulous plots and created the macabre world of terror and dark
Romanticism bringing alive the horror through the choice of his words.

His short story, ‘Tell Tale Heart’ can be classified as a psychological thriller, whereby Poe
explores different dimensions a mentally ill person, his psychological understandings, and how
and in what way he justifies the gruesome acts to be proper.

Hence, this article will discuss, as concisely as possible, what Poe is trying to illuminate
for his readers through his short story and what theories and hypothesis he has instilled within this
masterpiece.
 ‘Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe is amongst one of his most fascinating and famous
short stories. In it he explores, through the voice of an unrevealed narrator, the life of a mentally
ill person. However, the narrator unraveling the course of events is convinced that he is normal,
that he is considered ‘mad’ by others but is in truth very much ‘normal’; proof of which is the
manner in which he narrates the unfolding with utmost precision and methodically.

Furthermore, the pleading question in the beginning of the story conveyed with such placid
honesty: “but why will you say that I am mad?” suggests the narrator’s blind faith in himself and
his acute condition; which to him is no condition at all. According to him it had ‘sharpened his
senses’ and not ‘dulled them’. However, readers notice this as a contrasting fact because the mental
illness has ‘sharpened’ the narrator’s sense in a way through which his senses do become, in fact,
‘dull’. This is evident when he murders the old man, a person who had always been nice to him,
only because he does not feel comfortable with his eye which he goes on to describe as: ‘the eye
of a vulture’ which when falls on the narrator it ‘ran his blood cold’. By doing so, Poe explores
the psychological understanding of a mentally ill person, portraying to the eighteenth century
society that those with a similar condition are incapable of conceiving any sort of an objective
perspective as they are guided and provoked by their illness; which allows them to formulate
opinions as per their likelihood – that their actions are justified, their opinions make sense and
what they’re doing is right.

Moreover, there is also an element of symbolism which Poe uses here: the old man
symbolizing the persona of the society who has never harmed the narrator but who, much like the
old man, looks at him with his ‘vulture eye’ which symbolizes the ugly, disdained, and eerie looks
which people normally give those whom they think abnormal, mentally ill, or psychologically
broken. The narrator then strives to dismantle those ‘eyes’ which constantly judges him and wants
to get rid of them because in the opinion of the narrator they are harming him – ‘running his blood
cold’, as in incapacitating him and making him feel terribly uncomfortable. So, by killing the old
man he is infact claiming his comfort back. Therefore, this action of murdering a human being
does not appear to be wrong or indespicable to the narrator because as per his perspective he is
simply performing a deed for the fulfillment and betterment of himself.

Another prominent example of this conception would be the pride the narrator takes in
planning his murder of the old man. He asks the readers to consider and notice how ‘wisely he
proceeded’ and ‘with what foresight’, suggesting that in his mind his actions were deemed
perfectly normal and justifiable to his cause.

Moving on, after asking the readers to consider that the narrator was in fact sane and not
mental, Poe immediately illustrates him as a malicious person who extracts pleasure from planning
a gruesome murder and psychologically harassing another human being – all in all portraying the
narrator as a mentally ill person afterall. This can be discerned through the narrator’s own words:
“oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in!” These actions provoke the old
man to believe that something was wrong with him, that he was seeing things in the dark and tries
to comfort himself by saying that “it is nothing but the wind in the chimney”

Likewise, by providing such psychological insights and explanations into the mind of the
narrator what Poe does is that he endeavors to explore and comprehend the minds of murderers
and serial killers alike; to fathom what provokes them to commit such fiendish harm onto another
human being. Thereby, through the character of this fictitious narrator we as readers can assert that
Poe presents his own hypothesis on the matter: exhibiting the fact that murderers such as the
narrator himself take pleasure and pride in inducing psychological fear into the mind of another
human – the manner in which the narrator took pride and pleasure in inducing psychological fear
into the mind of the old man.

Moreover, they try to formulate any sort of justifiable or logical reasons which would help
them perceive their killings as just and inevitable – much like the narrator justifying his murder
through the old man’s ‘vulture eye’.

Furthermore, they are very methodical, meticulous and extremely careful about their
killings; stalking their prey patiently for some time, allowing them to believe that there is
something wrong with them, that their brains are conjuring false images in order to scare them,
before they jump onto them with their murder weapon and seal the deal – just the way the narrator
jumps the old man and ‘pulls the heavy bed over him’ killing him instantly. Likewise, they are just
as meticulous with corrupting the scene of the crime and flushing away any evidence which would
link the murder to them – such as the manner in which the narrator mutilates the old man’s body
and bury’s it into the ground and then washes away the blood stains with such impeccability that
no one would ever be capable of discovering what had actually occurred between him and the old
man.
 Similarly, fear of their prey stimulates them. It induces them with energy and vigor. In a
way – as per Poe’s portrayal – it calls them to kill them because very soon they become afraid of
the prospect that someone else would figure out that something was wrong with this person. Which
is the final provocation they need before they forcefully claim their prey’s life.

This been said, Poe also embeds this story with his philosophy and understanding of
‘death’. He vocalizes that the mere preconception of death is enough to induce fear within any
human being. Therefore, the old man is frightful even when he is oblivious of the narrator being
present in his room. Hence, explaining his concept of ‘death’ as a fear inducing and enveloping
entity which psychologically breaks the human being even before they are certain of the imminent
danger in which they are.

Moving on, another characteristic which helps the readers analyze the character of the
narrator is his understanding of his mental condition as ‘over-acuteness of the sense’. This portrays
to the readers the reasons leading to the narrator’s murder of the old man and what provoked him
to later on decapitate and mutilate his body. It is because the narrator strives for perfection,
calmness, and comfort. This can be discerned through the narrator’s own acts, as he strives for
perfection through his meticulous and methodical acts of killing as well as covering up his murder.
Similarly he strives for calmness as he decides to murder the old man not because he didn’t like
him but because he didn’t like his eye and it rendered him uneasy. Likewise he strives for comfort
through murdering the old man and ridding himself of his corpse and his wretched eye which had
caused him so much trouble.

It is interesting how Poe creates this notion of ‘vulture eye’ in order to justify the means to
an end. By doing so he highlights the psychological tendencies of all human beings, as all humans
tend to conjure – now and again – their own personal reasons to justify their actions even when
they are aware that they are in the wrong. Albeit, Poe highlights the fact that this is how the human
brain works because it is wired in such manner. Humans tend to blanket wrongly committed
actions into a satire of justifiable means in order to rid their conscious of guilt. Poe explains this
fact throughout his short story with utmost clarity. Making this concept of his the prime moral to
be extrapolated from the story and understood.

In conclusion, I would like to remind the students of literature – such as myself – that this
is but a short analysis of this magnificent story. Several more are demanded according to various
different perspectives in order to wholly appreciate, comprehend, and fathom the depth with which
Poe composed his work. Therefore, I would like to urge every student of literature to embark upon
this fantastical journey and share their experiences with the far reaching academic society of the
world.