The story I chose to read and write my analysis on is Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” written in 1843. The setting of the story takes place in an old fashioned house, primarily in a bedroom, where two individuals reside. One of them is the unnamed protagonist; a self-proclaimed care taker. The other, an old man, is the antagonist who has a diseased eye. The care-taker of the old man characterizes itself not as a mad-man, but as a man whose disease “sharpened [his] senses” (Poe, 1843). Although the gender of the narrator (and protagonist) is not revealed, it is believed that the character is male. The background characters are the three police men who enter the story in the tail end of the short story. This story is a narration
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It is fairly obvious to the readers that the narrator of the story is not of sound mind. Moreover, the narration of the story gives the reader the feeling of delusion and insanity. The narrator attempts to portray himself as a sound man by questioning other’s perceptions of him. He asks readers “How, then, am I mad?” prior to narrating his role in the murder of the old man (Poe, 1843). Critics suggest that the narrator is paranoid schizophrenic, thus helping to explain the actions and characteristics of the narrator. One unavoidable characteristic of the narrator is that he has the delusion belief that he is sane. He pleads with the audience to accept his narration and actions of those of a sane man. What sane man calculates and acts upon the idea of killing another person? The narrator views himself as doing no wrong, and as all mighty man. His narcissistic attitude contributes to his indifference in his actions, and allows him to kill a man he claims he loved. One critic highlights the idea that the narrator’s ego is what actually makes him hate the old man’s eye. For the eye reflects the narrators behaviors upon him, to which the narrator finds unbearable (Ki, M. W.-C. , 2008). This is an intriguing observation, and surely helps to explain the narrator’s obsession and passionate reaction to the eye. The author suggest that the narrator’s infatuation with himself is what the old man’s eye reflected upon the
It is fairly obvious to the readers that the narrator of the story is not of sound mind. Moreover, the narration of the story gives the reader the feeling of delusion and insanity. The narrator attempts to portray himself as a sound man by questioning other’s perceptions of him. He asks readers “How, then, am I mad?” prior to narrating his role in the murder of the old man (Poe, 1843). Critics suggest that the narrator is paranoid schizophrenic, thus helping to explain the actions and characteristics of the narrator. One unavoidable characteristic of the narrator is that he has the delusion belief that he is sane. He pleads with the audience to accept his narration and actions of those of a sane man. What sane man calculates and acts upon the idea of killing another person? The narrator views himself as doing no wrong, and as all mighty man. His narcissistic attitude contributes to his indifference in his actions, and allows him to kill a man he claims he loved. One critic highlights the idea that the narrator’s ego is what actually makes him hate the old man’s eye. For the eye reflects the narrators behaviors upon him, to which the narrator finds unbearable (Ki, M. W.-C. , 2008). This is an intriguing observation, and surely helps to explain the narrator’s obsession and passionate reaction to the eye. The author suggest that the narrator’s infatuation with himself is what the old man’s eye reflected upon the