IndexAnalysis. The titleb. The conspiracy. The narrative perspective Character analysis. The narratorb. The Old ManThe study of settingThe study of styleThe toneConclusionThe Tell-Tale Heart is probably the most iconic short story by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The story is approached simplistically as a horror story, which includes some paranormal features, or, from a more modernist perspective, as a complex psychological portrait of a disturbed and nameless narrator, whose guilt makes him feel the heartbeat heart of an old man who has just killed. murdered. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay According to the Gothic principles of literature and according to Edgar Allan Poe, “good literature must create truth or evoke emotion.” And these two traits more than others characterize his literary work. However, as is the case with many avant-garde authors, Poe was originally criticized negatively for his penchant for depraved themes. Woodberry (1885), for example, considers Poe's literature, and more specifically The Tell-Tale Heart, "a tale of conscience", arguing that Poe's attention to the details of death and murder only reflects his deranged personality. But nowadays, Edgar Allan Poe has been identified as the progenitor of the Gothic movement and considered an admirable writer of psychological thrillers. The Tell-tale Heart is equally a great example of a tale told from a first-person narrative perspective. It is an excellent example of how this technique can have an effect on the reader and invite him to think of as many interpretations as possible. Analyses. The TitleThe title gives the first impression of the story and informs the reader what to expect. In the case of The Tell-Tale Heart, it is the mystery that is introduced by the title itself. The title refers both to the narrator's heart, the old man's heart, and to the stories told by both: at the most obvious level, the The old man's heart tells stories to the narrator and also to the reader: we hear his heart beating for the first time during the eighth night, and when he realizes that something is wrong in his room, his heart again tells a story of fear, which, in turn, makes the narrator extremely angry and gives him the reason to lead to finish his horrible plan. The next time the old man's heart will be heard is when he is dead and torn to pieces! But since dead hearts don't beat, it could be interpreted as the narrator's guilt being projected onto the dead man's heart, thus telling us a story of guilt and guilt. And the latter refers to the narrator's heart.b. The PlotIn The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe experiences a rather modernist plot, which includes several ups and downs and which does not conventionally meet readers' expectations. In the exposition, the narrator intervenes by claiming that he is not crazy and offers "the story" as proof, reveals who he is (and who he is not) and communicates his decision to kill the old man's eye (and not the old man himself). The conflict, which begins the complication of the story, may at first appear to be "the eye" since that is what bothers him the most (or the only thing that bothers him at all). ). Furthermore, the narrator goes to the old man's room every night for a week, ready to do the dirty deed. But since the sleeping man does not open his “incriminating” eye, the narrator cannot kill him. However, let us not forget that the story is more psychological than material, and that the eye would not have the same effect on any other person than the narrator himself. Therefore, the conflict would more reasonably be considered an internal/psychological conflict,as happens within the narrator. All the subsequent events that follow one another between the decision to kill the man and the murder itself constitute the ascending action, until the climax, where the narrator kills the old man (with his bed and then cuts the body into pieces and hides it under the bedroom floor). What might be considered unconventional in this story is that the resolution of this murder is simply the opening set-up and preparatory stage for another “subplot”. In other words, many critics qualify this plot as a two-stage plot, that is, two complementary plots with two climaxes: After committing the crime and cleaning up all the traces, the police came to check if everything was okay. The narrator is calm and focused when they first introduced themselves. He even proposed giving them a guided tour of the house. And then he invites them into the old man's bedroom. All this before hearing the “terrible noise”. A second climax could be identified here: when the heartbeat becomes unbearably louder, the narrator has clarified the murder and revealed the hiding place of the corpse.c. Narrative Perspective Most of Poe's stories are told from an unreliable first-person point of view. The narrator of the tell-tale heart is trying to prove his sanity, but admits that thanks to his extremely powerful sense of hearing, he can "hear all things in heaven and earth, and many things in hell" (ref). Therefore, unless the story is viewed from a purely supernatural perspective, the narrator behaves irrationally or fails to live up to reality. The narrator also deduces that he is a know-it-all kind of narrator, he tells us what the old man thinks and how he feels. It could be argued that the narrator's insight into the man's head is merely a reflection of his own experience. In any case, unreliable narrators represent a basic aspect of what humans can be, or the confusion one can find oneself in when one cannot fully remember events or perceive reality accurately. However, in the tell-tale heart, this unreliability is taken to the extreme. The frightening aspect of this technique is so compelling that readers may end up suspecting that their own untrustworthiness may take over and consequently become like the narrator or the victims. of a person like the narrator. Character analysis. The Narrator The heart-revealing narrator is a very complex character: nervous, “terribly nervous”, paranoid and doesn't seem to know the difference between real and unreal. He appears to be completely alone and friendless, and can hardly sleep (the nights of waking up he describes). That's why it's hard not to feel sorry for him. Poe does not explicitly tell us who the narrator is, his gender, or his relationship to his victim. One explanation for this is that Poe tries to generalize, stating earlier (in The Wicked Imp, ref.) that all people are driven to murder and destructive acts for themselves (and others) thanks to their perverse impulses and uncontrollable. seems to be a combination of nerves, homicidal impulses and extreme sensory perceptions, tells the story in a very passionate and exquisite way, probably out of some hope of redemption or cure.b. The Old Man Although the old man may seem flat, he is even more mysterious than the murder itself: we know that he has money (the narrator shows his "treasures" to the police), he has a blue eye that the narrator despises, that he is a deep sleeper, and that she suspects nothing of premeditation in killing him (we can assume this since she leaves her bedroom door open). Based on this, and combining it with a careful reading of some”.