The Tell-Tale Heart Obsession

The story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe is told by a mad narrator with obsessions. It is about the narrator’s fear of an old man’s eye, prompting the narrator to kill the old man himself. Throughout the entire story, the narrator constantly attempts to convince the reader that he is not mad. This itself is an obsession and only assists in proving the narrator is mad. His obsessions are part of the madness, but the madness itself turns into an obsession. It is a terrible cycle that ends up worsening his obsessions and his madness. However, the narrator begins to feel guilt after killing the old man. The narrator’s madness, obsessions, and guilt are shown through Poe’s use of specific details, as well as the pacing and the structure
He tells how he “loved the old man” and “[The old man] had never wronged [the narrator]” (paragraph 2). He tells how the eye drew fear from the narrator whenever it fell upon him. He explains that the eye is like that of “a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it” (paragraph 2). Then he says he “gradually . . . made up [his] mind to take the life of the old man”. He then describes how “cunningly” and “wisely” he was able to enter the old man’s chamber without alerting the old man while he was asleep at night (paragraph 3). He uses these words in another attempt to prove that he is not mad, saying that “madmen know nothing” and that his cautiousness proves that he is not mad at all. These obsessions with the eye and not being mad are repeated a lot, and reveal a great amount of madness from the
In the third paragraph, the story develops quickly and is not very detailed. The narrator explains what he has done for the seven nights leading up to the night he kills the old man. However, in the following fifteen paragraphs, the narrator uses slower development and pacing, while describing the eighth night, in which he kills the old man. He slowly reveals how he gradually became angered by the “eye” and “the beating of the old man’s heart” (paragraphs 8 and 10). Then, he becomes nervous in the eleventh paragraph and kills the man, which is still paced slowly. After that, however, the narrator speeds up once again as the police arrive. He is able to convince them that the old man is on vacation and that there is nothing wrong. However, he becomes nervous and “wished them gone”. Finally, he admits to them that he killed the old