Tell Tale Heart
In Edgar Allan Poe's short-story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," the speaker of the story tries to convince the reader that he is not mad. But by the speaker telling the story as he does, he answers his own question that he asks the reader at the start of the story, "...why will you say I am mad?" ( Introduction to Literature, page 415). He attempts to tell his story in a calm manner, but as he describes various parts, he begins ranting with a great level of passion. The speaker pays particular attention to emphasize specific parts of his story. He is sure to highlight that he is simply nervous, and that he could not possibly be mad because as he says, "the disease had sharpened my senses" (415). Rather the disease, as he refers to his madness, only allowed him to hear more clearly those sounds of his imagination, to see what his mind wanted him to see. He kills the old man because the old man had an evil eye of that of a vulture which would make the speaker's blood run cold when he was looked upon. He even says he loved the old man, never does the speaker refer to him as anything else, but because of how the old man's eye looked the speaker needed to destroy it. This is the start of the speaker's madness, and as the reader listens to wha
After cutting off the head and limbs, the speaker puts the body underneath a few planks of wood, replacing the planks so that it is not noticeable that there has been any change. At this point the level of the speaker's madness heightens greatly, with his ears hearing "the beating of the old man's heart" (417). His fevered imagination brought him to great heights of creativity and the depths of paranoiac despair. Hearing his own heart and believing it is that of the old man, and killing the old man simply because he had the eye of a vulture is the physical proof. Was it the old man's heart, or rather was the speaker hearing his own heart beat in his ears? As the speakers rage and excitement grew, so did the sound. With the passion he speaks of the act, the reader can see that this is not the voice of a sane man speaking, but of a man gone mad and begging that he has held onto his sanity. t the speaker says, the madness within the speaker becomes apparent. Once again, the speaker is hearing not the old man's heart, but his own beating faster and louder with fear. Describing the situation seems to fill the speaker with the same fear, as he hears the sound again in his ears. The speaker answers this question very quickly for the reader. He believes he hears the old man's heart beating louder and louder and that the police officers "they heard!- they suspected!- they knew!- they were making a mockery of my horror!"(418). Was it really the old man's heart though? Even after the speaker kills the old man, he still hears the heart slowly pounding and then finally stopping. Though the speaker begs for sanity, it is obvious he has gone mad. At this part, the speaker losses all control over his emotions that he once had.
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