The Tell-Tale Heart Written by Edgar Allan Poe - Assignment Example

Poe does an excellent job of portraying the narrator’s behavior. The narrator is unable to explain his behavior clearly because his action of frightening the old man and then killing him was too spontaneous. As mentioned above, he is so befuddled and is driven mad by the guilty that he just could not beg to confess.
One cannot diminish the fact that Poe provides a comprehensive understanding of the paranoia and mental corrosion of the narrator. To enhance the suspense, Poe deliberately adds key details of memories that the murderer confesses to such as the old man’s eyes and his heartbeat. In this particular instance, the “Tell-Tale Heart” depicts the psychological contradictions that one man faces as he tries to justify his brutal murder of an innocent old man.
The justifications almost seemed that the man killed his victim due to self-defense when that was not the case. Poe tries to depict the act of a criminal’s mind and his absurd obsession with the old man. Poe excels to depict this story in such a way that makes the narrator seem normal but insane at the same.

The narrator is confused with mixed emotions as he both loves and hates the old man. The true sense of love is shown as observes the man but then kills him due to hate. His psychological breakdown is further elaborated upon when he confesses without any hesitation. One must continue to question the will of the narrator as he never murdered the man due to his love for his wealth or hatred due to his personality. In essence, the narrator is going through psychological changes and is bipolar which influences the narrator to take decisive action. Read More