Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allen Poe ( 1809-1849) was a famous American poet, short story writer, editor, and literary Critic. He is mostly recognized for his psychologically thrilling tales, detectives stories and science fiction, which has areas of special human experience- the “ inner world” of dream, hallucination, and imagination. Only lived for forty years, Poe was considered as a part of the Romantic movement and his contribution to romanticism, horror, science fiction, mystery, and literature as a whole is highly lauded. “ The Raven” (Poem), “ The fall of the house of usher”(Tale), “ The philosophy of composition” (Essay) are Poe’s the most significant contribution to literature. The story “ The Tell-Tale Heart” is about a narrator, who has a problem with the old man’s pale blue eye and he kills him to get rid of the curse. This story helps us to understand the theme, symbols and settings used by Poe, reflecting his inner conflict and psychological disorder.
The theme of the story “ The tell- Tale heart” is the guilt of the narrator and how he destroys himself. Through this story Poe is trying to convey message to his audience that however hard people try to hide their crime their “ Guilt will loud” and shall be punished by law. The narrator begins the story by admitting that he is nervous, yet keep on denying that he is insane, but wise and sharp minded. He does not have any firm reason to kill the old man nor he wanted the old man’s money, however the old man’s eye, which in his mind resembled with the vulture’s eye forced him to decide on murder. After killing the old man for no apparent reason, he hears endless heartbeat of the murdered old man, which was nothing but the sound aroused from his own terror. The confidence in the narrator eventually fades away, due to his own anxiety, fear and crime he had committed. As a result, the narrator confess his crime in front of law, and accept the consequence of it. Although, the narrator who denied of any evil deeds and justified his crime to be reasonable, the guilt ultimately came up through his own fear of discovery and provided justice to the old man.
A human heart can’t endure the burden of crime or guilt, especially when the sin is a murder. Wing-chi-ki reasons that evil we have within ourselves is often worse than the evil that might appear from the outside of people. Wing-chi-ki talks how the old man who had was physically evil due to his vulture looking eye, being murdered by the narrator who has evil within himself, absolutely for no reason. He said, “self-splitting occurs to characterize Poe's version of Ego-Evil: the hero becomes a divided subject that can see what's wrong, or understand the concepts of universal right and wrong through the eyes of the other, and yet he remains blind to his sins”. This story illustrate the biblical truth that humans love to impose their views upon others and fail to notice plank in our own eyes. We give priority to ourselves at the expense of other by eliminating them, which will end up by wrecking both sides (Ki).
Symbolism is another literary element that we see in most of Poe’s work. In this story “ The Tell-tale Heart”, he symbolizes the old man’s eye as evil and the reason of his murder. Although, the narrator loved the old man and had no desire of his property, his eyes was something he could not withstand and forced him to kill the old man. Another main symbolism used in this story was the “ heart beat” which is the symbol of time. Time is omniscient and omnipresent and it follows you wherever you go along with your deeds. In the story the narrator kills the old man and feels successful and glorified by his smartness, which is short-lived. When, the officers come, after a while the narrator starts turning pale and loses his confidence. He starts hearing the heart beat of his own and the dead old man’s. Since, the heart beat represents time, he could hide himself and his evil deed he had done, therefore confesses the crime. This shows that one cannot escape from the grasp of time, and our fate will always befall upon us.
James Kirkland brings up the relationship between the folk tradition and Poe’s literary text. He explores through the history and evidence of Poe’s familiarity with the folklores and talks about how the knowledge of evil eyes myths have influenced Poe’s story. He says, “ belief in fascination by eyes is as old as time itself”, and reasons that Poe’s was well acknowledged with the fact that certain people have the power to harm or even kill others simply by glancing or staring at them (Kirkland). Kirkland presents evidence from archeology that Evil eye was the most universal, the most ancient, and the most persistent of all the ancient superstitions (Kirkland). He says that there are sixty-seven culture around the globe, where the researchers have found evidence of some beliefs and practice associated with the evil-eye.
This story is written through the first person narrative point of view. It is clear after reading the story that the narrator is the protagonist and therefore if raises questions among the audience about the reliability of the narrator. Although the narrator constantly explains and reason that he in sane and the disease he has had sharpened his mind, his odd behaviors, reasoning and speeches makes the reader think that he is mad or suffering from some psychological problems. Actually, the first person narrative in this story has strengthened the foundation of the story and helped to understand the underlying plot. Due to use of active voice, the readers are able to gain the insight of the character and are able to cross the barrier between author and their own perception of antagonist. As we read through the story, we could be able to judge the narrator through his behavior and can conclude that he has symptoms similar to paranoid schizophrenia.
E. Arthur Robinson says, “ the point of view of the story is the criminal’s, but the tone is ironic in that his protestation of sanity produces an opposite effect upon the reader”. Robinson basically explains that “ The Tell-Tale Heart” is a monologue in which the narrator, a murder, protests his sanity rather than being innocence with the audience. James W. Gargono says that Poe’s intent of proving himself sane merely serves to intensify the notion of his madness or his psychological disorder. A systematic action can never be achieved if a person has some kind of psychological disorder or madness. A human being could never work efficiently if he/she is suffering from mental disorder (Robinson). In this story the narrator plea with his readers that he is sane and smart, by showing his cautious moves while killing the old man.
In conclusion, “ The Tell-Tale Heart” utilizes symbolism and irony in an extraordinary manner that add worth to the story. Poe’s on the other hand, artistically weaves all the elements of the story together and shapes the story into a Gothic fiction kind of genre. The story allows reader to gain an insight into a disturbed mind and provide lively experience of an insane and confuse person. The first person use of narration had given life to this story by focusing readers attention towards the inner world of the narrator and his madness. Besides, Poe’s through this story tries to convey the message that no matter where we hide or how long we try to hide or guilt it will be brought in front of the law by our own morals or through law.

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