The Tell Tale Heart Analysis Essay

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe focuses on the narrator’s mental deterioration and obsessions. The story is told from the first-person point of view. The point of view is key because readers only know what the narrator thinks. Because the story is only told from the point of the madman, it is hard to understand why he goes insane. Through the first-person point of view, the narrator’s fascinations are revealed. The narrator’s fascinations include: his own sanity, the old man’s eye, and the sound of a beating heart. The plot of the story is built on many different literary elements such as characterization, similes, and irony. The main characters are the narrator and his housemate. The old man is an innocent old man who seems to be …show more content…
He believes that the old man’s pale blue eye is the cause of his madness, but he constantly moves against his argument. His insanity grows when the old man’s heartbeat begins to terrify him. After killing the old man, the narrator dismembers his body and buries it beneath the floorboards. When police arrive due to a call of disturbance from a neighbor, the narrator attempts to convince the men that no crime has been committed by allowing them to search the entire house. At the end of the story, the narrator becomes irritated by the company of the policemen as well as a shrieking sound only he can hear. The story reaches a climax when the narrator’s annoyance drives him to admit to the …show more content…
You should have seen how wisely I proceeded
--with what caution --with what foresight
--with what dissimulation I went to work” (Poe).
When the narrator smiles as he welcomes the policemen in, is another sign that he is insane. He seems as if he has no remorse in the moments following the crime. At the end of the story, what the madman thinks is the beating of the old man’s heart, makes him lose his mind. He becomes unaware of his actions. He exclaims that, “he foamed, raved, and swore” (Poe) as if the police officers were not there. The given evidence proves that the narrator is mentally impaired. Clearly, the narrator is a madman. His actions as well as his dialogue, thoughts and literary elements presented by the author prove that he is indeed, not sane. The narrator admits to having a disease, but he constantly tries to prove his sanity to readers. Despite attempting to prove he is sane, he takes the life of his innocent housemate, a crime in which he later confesses to. One theme presented in the work is that guilt is an emotion shared by all humans, and it can sometimes overpower