The Tell-Tale Heart

Analysis
In the "Tell-Tale Heart," one of Poe's shortest pieces, he utilizes his words sparingly to present a
study of paranoia and mental decline. To emphasize the murderer's fascination with precise and
unadorned entities: the old man's eye, the heartbeat, and his own claim to sanity, Poe strips the plot
of unnecessary detail. Poe's economy of style and sharp language so add to the narrative material,
and this link between form and content may be the epitome of paranoia. Even Poe, like the beating
heart, is a part of the plan to catch the narrator in his nefarious scheme. This narrative shows the
psychological paradoxes that contribute to a violent profile as a study in paranoia. For example,
the narrator admits to being apprehensive in the first sentence, yet he can't understand why he's
being misunderstood. In terms of heightened sensory capacity, he describes his defense against
lunacy. Unlike Roderick Usher in "The Fall of the House of Usher," who admits to being mentally
ill, the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" sees his hypersensitivity as proof of his sanity, not a
symptom of lunacy. The narrator's specific expertise allows him to relate the story in a precise and
full manner, and he employs the stylistic tools of narration to support his own sanity. What drives
this narrator insane—and sets him apart from Poe—is his inability to grasp the relationship
between narrative style and substance. He is a master of perfect form, but he accidentally puts out
a murder story that reveals the craziness he is trying to hide. Another key conflict in the novel is
the conflict between the narrator's love and hate capacities. Poe delves into a psychological
conundrum here, namely, why individuals injure others they love or need in their lives. Poe
investigates this dilemma half a century before Sigmund Freud made it a central theme in his
psychological ideas. Poe's narrator adores the elderly gentleman. He is not envious of the elderly
man's wealth, nor is he enraged by any slight. As a result, the narrator excludes potential reasons
for such a heinous crime. The narrator focuses on the elderly man's vulture-eye while he professes
his own sanity. He obsessively reduces the old guy to the faint blue of his eye. He wants to detach
the guy from his "Evil Eye" so that he might relieve him of the guilt that he places on the eye. The
narrator misses the fact that the old man's eye is his "I," an integral part of his identity that cannot
be separated as the narrator imagines. The narrator's separation of the elderly man's identity from
his physical eye is demonstrated by the old man's murder. Because the narrator regards the eye as
being wholly independent from the guy, he is capable of murdering him while yet claiming to love
him. The narrator's desire to remove the man's eye propels his murder, but he is unaware that his
actions will result in the man's death. The narrator further strips the elderly guy of his humanity
by dismembering him. By terminating the guy and dividing him into so many fragments, the
narrator reinforces his belief that the old man's eye is distinct from the man. When his imagination
imagines alternate possibilities, his plan backfires.