Essay Example on The Tell-Tale Heart: Gothic Mystery, Mental Instability, and Guilt

The Tell-Tale Heart story by Edgar Allan Poe describes a narrator who asserts his mental stability after killing an old man for his "vulture eye" (Poe, 1843). The killing is schemed, and the killer dismembers the body then hides it in the floorboards. However, the narrator hallucinates that the older man's heartbeats underneath the floorboards to show his guilt. The story displays gothic conventions that include mystery and suspense by manipulating the setting of the narrative. The author also uses tension and horror in relaying the story. However, as shown in the whole story, the narrator remains unreliable, which is demonstrated through his actions and thoughts. This paper focuses on discussing the unreliability of the narrator.

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Research shows that an unreliable narrator is one whose ideas, opinions, and perceptions do not coincide with his actions (Hansen, 2017). The accounts of their work are also faulty and depart from the understanding of the events of their actions. Narrators can be unreliable due to the lack of self- knowledge, and evidence of mental stability. A first-person narrator is also, in most instances, referred to as unreliable. Therefore, the narrator in the Tell-Tale Heart story is unpredictable.

The narrator is unreliable throughout the whole story. The unknown narrator is unreliable as he lacks mental stability (Hansen, 2017). How he narrates the murder of the older man as he recounts the main reason for killing him and the way he executes the crime to prove his soundness discloses his fear. He tries to show his sanity in attempting to murder the older man in his sleep because of his blind eye but denies and expounds that he always found the eye closed. He also goes on to narrate that it was not the man who provoked him but his "vulture eye." His perception that the older man and the eye are different entities shows his insanity as he tries to justify the murder.

Additionally, the narrator's unreliability is shown through the accumulation of his direct address to the reader and the conscious efforts to gain the reader's sympathy (Amir, 2020). He explains how he was kind to the older man a week before he killed him. In proving his sanity, the narrator directs the readers to read his mind and verify his claims. He first boasts of his calculated plan. However, it is clear to the readers that he is insane and not a calculated planner as his language shows that he is disordered, despite his claims of carrying out the murder and concealing the crime. In his endeavour to address the reader, he loses his control and forgets his motive of proving his sanity. The narrator's insistence on showing to the readers that he is sane further intensifies the idea that he is unreliable. He also seeks to persuade the reader his ability to engage in the calculated murder proves him to be reasonable even though the action is directed to committing a heinous act.

Moreover, there is a contradiction of the narrator's comments on other characters and his characterization of self. There is only one character in the story, who is the older man. One believes the information given until the textual signals illustrate that the literal meaning of the story does not apply (Amir, 2020). The narrator, therefore, recreates the reality in the story but by his point of view. The narrator also establishes himself as someone who is all-knowing and seeing when he says that he hears a groan of a mortal terror and that he knows that the man lied awake from the time he listened to the noise. He also gives a full account of what the older man thinks when he hears the sound in his room. The unreliability of his character is therefore illustrated as he does not know anything.

Besides, the narration is in the first person. The narrator is also uneasy and paranoid. In the first paragraph, the narrator declares that he is nervous and that the disease had sharpened his senses. He also pays close attention to his surroundings in the older man's darkroom. The author uses exclamation marks throughout the story to show the excitement of the narrator (Amir, 2020). The punctuation marks also show that the narrator is uneasy yet proud of his achievement. It shows that the narrator is unreliable in his narration.

Furthermore, the story is not driven by the narrator's firmness of his innocence but to prove his sanity and prove that only a sane man can carry out a calculated murder as he did. His guilt is shown through his hallucination of the older man's heartbeat, and he is convinced that the police can hear him. When the police come to question the narrator, he leads them to his chamber and brings them chairs in the same room that he killed the older man. Then again, he starts hallucinating with the older man's heartbeat (Amir, 2020). The confidence he has when allowing the police inside diminishes as he confesses of murdering the older man.

The unreliability of the narrator in the short story is illustrated in the contradictions between his account of events, the explanations, and interpretations (Bradley, 2019). Throughout the story, the narrator is obsessed with his sense of acute hearing as he hints in the beginning of the story. After cutting the body of the older man and concealing the murder, he begins to hear noises that he believes to be the sound of the heartbeat of his victim. He pretends to be confident but eventually leads the police to the body and confesses to the crime.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident from the story that the narrator is unreliable. Illustrated through his actions and thoughts, it is also evident that the narrator is deranged and mentally unstable, proving that he is an unreliable source. Throughout the story, the narrator is trying to prove to the readers that he is sane. He further contradicts every claim he makes with his behavior.

References

Amir, S. (2020). Analysis of the Short Story'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe. The Creative Launcher, 2.Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3551267

The source analyzes the story with an emphasis on its literary devices and themes. It also discusses the characteristics of the narrator. Moreover, the source discusses the various aspects of the story showing the unreliability of the author. It is suitable for the topic as it addresses the multiple issues of the unreliable protagonist.

Bradley, E. (2019). Shaping Readers: The Moral Impact of Narrators.Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/821/

The source is relevant to the topic as it discusses the characteristics of an unreliable narrator. It also shows the impact of how the reader aligns with the unreliable narrator. It shows how the authors shape the readers through unreliable narration. The source is credible, as has been published within the last five years.

Hansen, P. K. (2017). The dynamics of unreliable narration: Implicit and omitted authors, double narrates, and constructive readers in unreliable first-person narration. In Expectations: Reader Assumptions and Author Intentions in Narrative Discourses (pp. 28-53). Medusa. Retrieved from https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/publications/the-dynamics-of-unreliable-narration-implicit-and-omitted-au

The source focuses on unreliable simultaneous narration and the roles of the unreliable narrators in a narration. The author proposes a model for describing the role of the empirical reader in the different forms of unreliable narration. It also shows how the reader can identify unreliable narrators. The source suits the topic as it describes the different signs of an unreliable narrator. It is also a credible source as has been published recently.

Poe, E. A. (1843). The tell-tale heart.Retrieved from https://repositorio.ufsc.br/bitstream/handle/123456789/132720/The_Tell-Tale_Heart_(Edgar_Allan_Poe_1843).pdf?sequence=1