Register to read the introduction…
He is not a reliable narrator because he is emotionally unstable. Poe heightens the tension and fear running through the mind of the narrator. There is a clear connection between the language used by the narrator and his psychological state. The narrator switches between calm, logical statements and quick, irrational outbursts. Poe effectively conveys panic in the narrator’s voice, and the reader senses uneasiness and growing tension in the story.
4. He is unreliable a narrator because he suffers from hallucinations. The narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" acts as if he had the selective omniscience of a third-person narrator. Approaching the old man's bed on the night of the crime, the narrator claims to know what his victim "had been …show more content…
The narrator is not trustworthy as the story is highly subjective. In ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’’ stimulus in objective sense scarcely exists at all. The story contains only two main characters, both unnamed, and three indistinguishable police officers; even the setting of the narration is left unspecified. Only the man’s eye motivates the murderer, and that almost wholly through his internal reaction to it. The action too, though decisive, is quickly over, “In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him.’’ In contrast, the intermediate, subjective experience is prolonged to a point where psychologically it is beyond objective measurement. At first the intervals receive conventional description—an ‘‘hour,’’ or ‘‘many minutes’’—but eventually such descriptions become meaningless and duration can be presented only in terms of the experience itself. Thus, in the conclusion of the story, the ringing in the madman’s ears is ‘‘distinct,’’ then is discovered to be so ‘‘definite’’, and finally grows to such obsessive proportions that it drives the criminal into an emotional and physical frenzy. Throughout the story, not much objective information is given; the experience is simply way
4. He is unreliable a narrator because he suffers from hallucinations. The narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" acts as if he had the selective omniscience of a third-person narrator. Approaching the old man's bed on the night of the crime, the narrator claims to know what his victim "had been …show more content…
The narrator is not trustworthy as the story is highly subjective. In ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’’ stimulus in objective sense scarcely exists at all. The story contains only two main characters, both unnamed, and three indistinguishable police officers; even the setting of the narration is left unspecified. Only the man’s eye motivates the murderer, and that almost wholly through his internal reaction to it. The action too, though decisive, is quickly over, “In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him.’’ In contrast, the intermediate, subjective experience is prolonged to a point where psychologically it is beyond objective measurement. At first the intervals receive conventional description—an ‘‘hour,’’ or ‘‘many minutes’’—but eventually such descriptions become meaningless and duration can be presented only in terms of the experience itself. Thus, in the conclusion of the story, the ringing in the madman’s ears is ‘‘distinct,’’ then is discovered to be so ‘‘definite’’, and finally grows to such obsessive proportions that it drives the criminal into an emotional and physical frenzy. Throughout the story, not much objective information is given; the experience is simply way