Edgar Allan Poe
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“The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe revolves around violent, ugly, bizarre, and disturbing events. These events help to shape the theme that mental stability is instrumental in the life of every human being. Most of Poes writing revolved around gloomy elements for which he became famous. In “The Tell Tale Heart” the narrator seems to be mentally unstable, for no reason. He becomes strangely obsessed with his neighbors vulture like eye. The old mans eye and the old man do no harm to narrator and he establishes this in the beginning of the short story. Though the eye and the man cause no harm he allows it to take over his life as a sick obsession he believes he must rid himself and the world of. The more he thinks about the eye the more he gets the motive to kill the old man and steal his ugly eye. Poe uses gloomy, violent, and bizarre elements to set the mood for such a peculiar story. The narrators insanity drives him to steal the old mans eye.
The narrator states “[i]t is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none.” (Poe). He established a likeable character in the old man by saying “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye!”(Poe). This introduces the narrators insanity early in the short story. The narrator had no idea why the old mans eye bothered him; this proves that the narrator has some mental issues. This opening scene adds a bizarre effect to the story, because the readers are able to understand the narrator and his insanity. Understanding the narrator is key the stories uniqueness. The reader is unsure why the eye bothers the narrator the extent to which it does therefore the reader is intrigued to reader further and discover the plight of the narrator and the reason for the condition of the infamous eye. The complexity in the narrators character could be a possible reason for the phenomenal success of Poe and the short story “The Tell Tale Heart”.
The narrator finally made up his mind to kill the old man, because he could no longer take the eye that he made up his “mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid [himself]self of the eye forever”(Poe). When the narrator states “[i]t took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed”(Poe). The narrator seems to be taking his time to plot his kill; he isnt in a hurry. This alone could prove the unhealthy mental state of the narrator. He takes his time and is very careful that he doesnt wake the old man. It took him an hour to get through the window; this lets readers understand how careful the narrator was being when he was trying to get in. He didnt kill the old man on the first night; it took him a few nights before he could find the right time to make his attack “[a]nd this I did for seven long nights”(Poe). It appears the narrator is anxious to get the old man, but he has to be very careful. When he mentions he considers the murder for seven long nights, the readers understand that he let the thought of the eye haunt him, because he was very anxious to obtain the eye. The narrator is attempting to attack the old man at midnight. Midnight is sort of