literary analysis

Student 2

Susie Student

Benenhaley

English 112

16 February 2017

Inside the Mind of a Madman

The story of “A Tell-Tale Heart” is of a mentally ill man trying to convince the reader of his sanity. He tries to convince the reader of his sanity by justifying his violent actions for being wise, not being against the victim personally, and simply having over-acute senses. Then when the act is done and cleaned of all suspicion he hears a heartbeat from where the body was stuffed. It eventually drives him to confess to the police of his crime. Many things can be taken from this tale to increase understanding, one must look at the author, his purpose, the topic of the story, and the intended audience.

Looking at the life of Edgar Allan Poe, one can come to a better understanding of “A Tell-Tale Heart.” When Poe was young, his father left him and his mother died of tuberculosis. Poe became an orphan and was sent to his aunt and uncle Frances and John Allan. He became close with his aunt, who would eventually die of tuberculosis also, but his uncle John was controlling and abusive to Poe. Poe got himself into debt from gambling, he asked John Allan for help, so Allan cut off Poe and never spoke to him again. Poe really had no one he could truly rely on. Despite all of the terrible relationships in his life, Poe did marry. Her name was Virginia, she was his cousin, and after about ten years of marriage, she too died of tuberculosis. This darkness that was Poe’s reality inspired his writing, but not just his reality was dark, his mind was also dark. Poe relates to the narrator in “A Tell-Tale Heart” when it comes to clear mental illness. The narrator struggles from mental illness, clearly, since he killed a man for no other reason than his dislike for the look of the man’s eye, as well as hearing things afterward. Poe was also assumed to have mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder and manic depression.

Poe’s mental illness and depressing life could have had an impact on his purpose for writing “A Tell-Tale Heart.” The purpose Poe had in writing this may have been to cope with his own mental illness. It is not uncommon to see those who live with difficulty when it comes to mental illness to become violent. Rather than becoming violent in his circumstances, like some with mental illness do, he wrote through the perspective of a narrator who also had mental issues who committed a violent crime, murder. The purpose of the narrator could be tied to Poe’s purpose as well. He is trying to convince the audience of his sanity. He does this by attempting to appeal to the reader’s logic. His main argument, which he uses repetitively is, “would a mad man have been so wise as this?” (Poe). Poe could be intending to give an audience a look into the mind, justifications, and dangers of someone with mental illness, perhaps to be better understood himself.

“A Tell-Tale Heart” is very clearly about mental illness and how it relates to violence. The entirety of the short story, the narrator is attempting to justify his actions of killing the old man. This topic can be disturbing at times because his justifications can put people with normal minds at unease. One of the arguments the narrator makes is that because he is not killing the old man because of the old man, but because he dislikes his eye, it is not bad. He also tries to convince the reader that he is too wise to be crazy, showing arrogance. By making these arguments that his mind is healthy, the reader can gather the opposite, that his mind is anything but healthy. This gives the reader a perspective of what a mentally ill person’s thoughts and justifications are. “A Tell-Tale Heart” really shows how one can justify violence through the blinders of a sickly mind.

The main audience of “A Tell-Tale Heart” is any sane person. It is written in second person, therefore written toward the reader. It is written to an audience that would know that the narrator is crazy, this is shown in arguments he makes, such as, “And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?” (Poe). He references that the audience is mistaking him for being mad, the reader knows the narrator is crazy. The clash of the mentally ill arguments to the sane audience appeals to the readers pathos with feelings of disgust, uneasiness, and fear. This includes statements such as, “it was not the old man that vexed me, but his Evil Eye,” (Poe) and, “It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury,” (Poe) as well as his description of how he hid the body by chopping it up and stuffing it in the floor, and then being proud of himself for being so wise. The emotions intended for the reader could only be brought to light by someone who understood the narrator was crazy, and thus the audience must have been sane.

Edgar Allan Poe had a difficult life and it had a huge influence on his writing, including “A Tell-Tale Heart.” His life can be connected to the topic of mental illness and violence that is apparent in this story. Poe may have even used his writing to cope with his own mental illness and troubling life. Poe’s life gives one a better understanding and background of the narrator character as well as the topic of mental illness. The plot and character motivation are much better perceived knowing the purpose as well as those intended to read the story. Overall, this context gives one a better overall understanding of the complex story of “A Tell-Tale Heart.”

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Ibiblio.org, 1843, http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/

Tell-Tale_Heart.pdf.