The Tell Tale Heart
Posistion Paper - The Tell-Tale Heart: Interperative or Escapist Human nature is a delicate balance between good and evil. Most of the time there is an unknown balance and the evil is subdued; however, when there is a shift, for whatever reason, the dark or evil side of human nature can surface. In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", readers come across a man whose "blood runs cold" because of an old man's evil eye. It is this irrational fear which evokes the narrator's dark side and eventually leads to murder. The author utilizes the "Tell-Tale Heart" to convey the nature of life and how one can stray into insanity. The author combines this theme of human nature with subtle irony to create a horror story which is clearly an interpretive type of writing. "The Tell-Tale Heart" first starts off with the narrator denying his insanity: "You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded ..". The narrator is trying a great deal to prove his sanity to the readers; however, the iron
In this story, it is the evil eye which turns the narrator's "blood run cold". I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die!" All the while the sound grew "louder! louder! louder! louder!" "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!--tear up the planks!--here, here!--it is the beating of his hideous heart!" This conveys another example of irony. " Once again, the narrator starts to hear the old man's heartbeat which eventually came overbearing until the narrator finally confesses: "No, no! They heard!--they suspected!--they knew!--they were making a mockery of my horror!. The narrator has no motive for this murder except for the fact of the old man's evil eye, "a pale blue eye with a film over it . The narrator repeatedly insists that he is not mad; however the reader soon realizes that the fear of this evil eye has consumed the narrator, who has now become a victim to the madness which he had hoped to escape. " This disease is not in reality a disease of sharpened senses, but a disease of a severe case of nervousness, which causes the narrator to hear and do irrational things. Another ironic example found in this story is that this "evil eye", an organ of sight, is the reason for the murder; however, it is the sound of the beating heart which condemns the narrator. It was the beating of the old man's heart. Before the narrator murders the old man he starts to "hear" the old man's heartbeat: "I knew that sound well too.
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