Introduction to The Tell-Tale Heart

This analysis of The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe explores how the themes of guilt and madness shape the narrator’s mental state. A short story where a theme is highlighted by the experiences of a main character is The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. The theme of guilt and how that can wear down someone’s mental state is explored throughout the story, using techniques which help the readers gain a deeper understanding of the themes.

First-Person Narrative and Madness

The text uses a first-person narrative to introduce itself.
‘True! – Nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and I am, but why will you say that I am mad?’ The abrupt opening creates a sense of urgency and immediately introduces the narrator’s unstable mental state.

‘How, then, am I mad? Hearken! And observe how stealthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story’. The text is written in first person perspective to give a better understanding of the narrator’s descent into madness, and also how his judgement is impaired. The in-media res is used to pull us immediately into his perspective, which means that the readers have to work out what is going on.

Juxtaposition of Thoughts and Actions

The text uses juxtaposition between his thoughts and action.
‘Object there was none. Passion there was none. 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.’

The narrator explains that he didn’t kill the old man because of anything like wealth, or because he hated the man.
‘You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me.You should have seen how wisely I proceeded – with what caution – with what foresight – with what dissimulation.’

This juxtaposition highlights his denial and shows how deeply he is trying to rationalize his behavior. The juxtaposition of his thoughts help gives the reader of how in denial the narrator is about how guilty he is, and how far he is descending into madness.

Symbolism of the Vulture Eye

The narrator is greatly fixated on the old man’s eye.
‘One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture…’

The narrator compares the old man’s eye to that of a vulture. The imagery of vultures relates to death, as vultures are scavengers that seek death and dead animals in order to eat and sustain themselves.

‘Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold;’

The narrator describes whenever he feels the eye look at him, his blood runs cold, implying that it fills him with a deathly fear.
‘…but his Evil Eye…’

This suggests a deep, almost irrational fear. The capitalisation of ‘Evil Eye’, gives the eye more importance and shows the narrator has out it on some sort of pedestal, so much that he gives it an official name. His naming of the eye also refers to folklore surrounding Evil Eyes. The narrator places exaggerated importance on the eye, and how the importance he is placing on it, with all these negative connotations is driving him to madness.