Analysis of The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Lady and the Monster - Book Report/Review Example

The Short “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Lady and the Monster" The short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” was Edgar Allan Poe’s narration and was first published in the year 1843. The narrative revolves around unnamed narrator who tries to convince the audient or readers about his sanity despite the murder he committed. Unlike the Poovey’s narration where the victim is a woman, then victim of murder in this nation is a bling old man. The narrator describes him with a “vulture eye”. After killing or slaughtering the old man, the narrator carefully dismembered the old man's body and hide under the floorboards (Poe 03). In both of these narrations, there are murders committed by persons who are trying to prove a point but not out of vengeance. The monster in the Poovey’s story does not feel any guilt of his atrocities; however, the narrator in the "The Tell-Tale Heart" narrative feels the guilt that is manifested in an auditory hallucination. The story Tell Tale Hear is a basic level conflict story. The story depicts mental conflict particularly within the narrator. Using obvious statements and clues, Poe tentatively alerts the reader of the narrator’s insanity. The insanity of the narrator is described with his nature of the obsession of the old man’s eye that overrides him thereby leading him loss of control of himself and then he ends up in violence (Poe 04). As the story unfolds, the narrator reveals how he murdered his housemate. Up to this point, Poe is only revealing to the readers the brutal insanity of the narrator. Despite the insanity and the feelings of the narrator that he could keep this murder a secret, the guilt overwhelms him and eventually confesses of his supposed perfect crime. In most cases, people tend to think that insane people are often excited to share their rightful mind. In this case, Poe reveals that guilt is an emotional characteristic share within humanity despite the state of mind. Therefore, even the insane persons are never above or below feeling of guilt and its eventual havoc of psyche. The main theme in this story seems to address the emotional feelings in the human race. Other than the theme of emotional feelings, the story is embedded in heaps of secrecy. The use of first person and the unreliable narrator and unjustified revelation reveal his paranoia and monomania. The reader of Poe’s story is subjected to numerous counts of assumptions in the story unlike in the Poovey’s narration. From the every fist instance, the reader is not told whether the narrator is a woman or man. However, from his actions and the way he talks, readers may only assume that he may be a male. The monster in the Poovey’s work is clearly identified as a man whose intentions are driven social realization of the society (Shelley 347). Additionally, Poe has not actually revealed why the narrator decided to kill the old. He only talks of possession of the narrator on the old man’s eye, a factor that can not justify taking away of once life. After killing the old man, the narrator pleads innocence despite his actions (Poe 20). On the other had, Poovey is pleading the innocence on the atrocity committed by the monster on the woman. The narrator's explanations to prove his innocence leads him to self destruction since have he attempts to peg his actions on insanity than his guilt to murder intensifies. Furthermore, he attempts to deny insanity based on his systematic actions, as well as precision; however, all these explanations only reveal his irrational behaviors. Regardless of his explanation, narrator can never convince the reader of the rational of his actions; however, Poovey took it her responsibility to defend the monster. Poovey says that the monster committed the evil deeds because of overactive egotistical desire or imagination to prove one’s self, but it was pushed to fulfill the societal demands (Shelley 350). As much as Frankenstein instead that the monster was the main problem in the society, Poovey viewed his actions as symbols and other than the actual problem. In her contribution, Poovey criticized Frankenstein’s view or work on the position on women in society. Frankenstein insisted that women are being looked down upon, while Poovey insist that, in every societal setting, there must be norm and rules of relationship on how people relate. According to her, such norms must be respected. Therefore, according to Poovey the relationship and roles between a man and woman in the society should never be considered as evil acts being carried out to undermine women. Poovey does not want to imagine that relationship in the society is a form of oppression on a particular gender. Therefore, she asserts that personal and society relationship often favors regulations in the society thereby shaping behaviors of people to a certain degree of conformity (Poovey 100). Thus, the societal relations are effective ways of hindering destructive aspects of people’s imagination and egotism. She also argues that uninhabited growth of egoisms will only lead to harmful and destructive endeavors (Shelley 348). According to her, the reclusive nature of the society and the uninhibited imagination leads to the growth and success in the society. Thus, the society should be left to relate naturally without thinking that one gender is oppressing the other. Contrary, the narrator is not a gender or social issue. Poe is only interested in showing how mental problem can be a significant issue in the society that can lead to enormous and uncalled for destructions. In the “Lady and the Monster" narration, there is a relationship between the victim and the murderer. On the other hand, it is unclear if there is any kind of relationship between the old man and his murderer (Poe 10). Additionally, the narrator reports that, despite the murder, he feels no sense of hatred to the victim neither does he feels resentment to the old man. Similarly, Poovey insisted in her story that the monster is only ambitious, and she does not believe that either Frankenstein or the monster was committed to murder because of their overactive imaginations. However, Frankenstein has the exact opposite feeling about the monster. Additionally, both narrator and the monster killed the people they loved the most. The narrator once confessed, “I loved the old man! He had never wronged me…! He had never given me insult! (Poe 16)” Moreover, he denied the assumptions that he killed the old man because of his greed. He said that no object facilitated his deed. He said, “Object there was none…” he continued by saying “For his gold, I had no desire.” In Poe’s narration, the unnamed narrator speaks for himself; however, in the “Lady and the Monster", Poovey defends the motives of the monster’s actions (Shelley 352). Furthermore, she does not agree that the monster was the problem but his ambition to prove a point in his family relationship is what facilitated his actions. From the “The Tell-Tale Heart” narration, the old man has been depicted as the father figure who happened to be the proprietor of the narrator. The narrator was the old man’s servant and may be his “vulture eye” depicted some sort of power or secret. In Poovey narration, the monster and the woman had also some sort of relationships (Shelley 355). The monster stands out be actually powerful than the woman or the victim. The main contrast depicted in these relations is that in Poovey’s criticism of Frankenstein reveals the monster to be above his victim while, in Poe’s nation, the victim is the servant of the victim (Poe 22). Despite being regarded as the servant of the old man, the relationship between these two characters remains ambiguous, and it lacks clarity. The relationship between that monster and the women clearly show a fight of supremacy in the society. Poovey accepts or agrees with this kind of relationship and argues that man should be given his dignity in the society as per the expectation of the society. Therefore, these two stories show the battle of supremacy in the society of families since the narrator could as well be the son of the old man. Works Cited Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein: A Kaplan Sat Score-Raising Classic. New York: Kaplan Pub, 2006. Print. Poe, E. A. (1982). The tell-tale heart and other writings. New York: Bantam. Read More