Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”: Once Deranged Always Insane
Something that is always certain is that crazy people don’t know they are crazy. I know i’m crazy, thus i'm not crazy, isn't that crazy? Edgar Allan Poe’s “ The Tell-Tale Heart” is a daunting tale, leaving the reader to ponder if the narrator is as normal as he says he is, or if he is truly just a deranged character. In this short story, the unnamed narrator describes a detailed murder he commits.The casualty of this murder was an old man that the narrator once endeared, but something about the old man altered the narrator's mind. That something was the old man's eye; the eye was “a pale blue with a film over it” (Poe 39). This “evil eye” is what vexed the narrator and enticed …show more content…
In other words, the eye symbolizes the narrator's identity. In this apprehensive moment, the narrator is waiting patiently for the old man to lay back down but when he doesn't the narrator opens a little cranny in the lantern. When the narrator opens the lantern a dim of light shines upon the old man's vulture eye, and at this moment the narrator diminishes the old man’s identity: “ I saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bone; but I could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person. (Poe 40). The old man's eye is the reflection of the narrator. The narrator refers to the eye as “evil” and and compares it to a vulture’s eye, but these words he uses describes himself more. Afterall, your eyes are the window to your …show more content…
During the unforeseeable moment when the narrator was was trying to remain motionless, the narrator “acuteness of senses” enabled him to hear the old man's heartbeat. The heart beating noise started to increase the narrator’s furry and thus it started to make him nervous giving him anxiety: “ It grew louder, I say louder every moment! do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noiseas this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me the sound would be heard by a neighbor” (Poe 40-41)! The deranged narrator doesn't realize that he’s not hearing the old man’s heartbeat. The narrator believes that he just has an “acuteness to senses”, but in reality it is his own heart beat. Besides the narrator’s madness, we could relate to him as far as nervousness goes. We experience nervousness typically when we are scared. Our hearts being to start beating faster and sometimes our senses may seem to become more aware. When this happens we refer to it as the fight or flight
Something that is always certain is that crazy people don’t know they are crazy. I know i’m crazy, thus i'm not crazy, isn't that crazy? Edgar Allan Poe’s “ The Tell-Tale Heart” is a daunting tale, leaving the reader to ponder if the narrator is as normal as he says he is, or if he is truly just a deranged character. In this short story, the unnamed narrator describes a detailed murder he commits.The casualty of this murder was an old man that the narrator once endeared, but something about the old man altered the narrator's mind. That something was the old man's eye; the eye was “a pale blue with a film over it” (Poe 39). This “evil eye” is what vexed the narrator and enticed …show more content…
In other words, the eye symbolizes the narrator's identity. In this apprehensive moment, the narrator is waiting patiently for the old man to lay back down but when he doesn't the narrator opens a little cranny in the lantern. When the narrator opens the lantern a dim of light shines upon the old man's vulture eye, and at this moment the narrator diminishes the old man’s identity: “ I saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bone; but I could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person. (Poe 40). The old man's eye is the reflection of the narrator. The narrator refers to the eye as “evil” and and compares it to a vulture’s eye, but these words he uses describes himself more. Afterall, your eyes are the window to your …show more content…
During the unforeseeable moment when the narrator was was trying to remain motionless, the narrator “acuteness of senses” enabled him to hear the old man's heartbeat. The heart beating noise started to increase the narrator’s furry and thus it started to make him nervous giving him anxiety: “ It grew louder, I say louder every moment! do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noiseas this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me the sound would be heard by a neighbor” (Poe 40-41)! The deranged narrator doesn't realize that he’s not hearing the old man’s heartbeat. The narrator believes that he just has an “acuteness to senses”, but in reality it is his own heart beat. Besides the narrator’s madness, we could relate to him as far as nervousness goes. We experience nervousness typically when we are scared. Our hearts being to start beating faster and sometimes our senses may seem to become more aware. When this happens we refer to it as the fight or flight