Preview

Analyzing The Character In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
492 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analyzing The Character In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart
What comes to mind when thinking about a main character? What usually comes to mind is the character’s transformation through a story is what really makes a special character. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” the main character goes through several changes.
When the author introduces the main character he makes it clear that there is something off about him. One example of this is in “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.” (Par. 1). This is something that is not just casually said by people normally; This immediately makes the main character seem abnormal. Then the main character goes on to question why people would accuse him of being mad. He says “The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them” (par. 1), and he goes on to brag about how carefully he was able to commit the murder. The main character
…show more content…
Instead of boasting about how well thought out the murder was, he instead explained how he became very nervous. This occurred when the police entered his home after a noise complaint; the main character began hearing the old man’s heart beat. A way the narrator shows this is in the line “Almighty God! --no, no! They heard! --they suspected! --they knew!” (par. 17). The heart beat could be interpreted as his conscious eating away at him. This is a major turn from how boastful he was originally. This shows that even though he is a little insane, he feels some sort of remorse for his actions.
“The Tell Tale Heart’s” main character goes through several changes during the story. Edgar Allen Poe was able to design the character to be completely insane, yet the character also feels remorse for his actions subconsciously. This shows us that the character is still a human being, and he is not so insane that he no longer feels regret. In the end, so much is learned about the character. Such as how his mind works and how calculated he makes his

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The "Tell-Tale Heart" is an American classic. The teller of Poe’s tale is a classic unreliable narrator. The narrator is not deliberately trying to mislead his audience; he is delusional, and the reader can easily find the many places in the story where the narrator’s telling reveals his mistaken perceptions. His presentation is also deeply ironic: the insistence on his sanity put his madness on display. The first paragraph alone should provide fertile ground for readers to find evidence of his severe disturbance. The effect of this story is powerful and successful.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Tell Tale Heart," is a short story about a killer's morality consuming the narrator and a battle between the narrator being insane, or if he is suffering from over-acuteness of the senses. Poe suggests the narrator is sane by the narrator's claim of sanity, "True! - nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am." The narrator's actions bring out the dramatic irony in this story, showing readers the narrator is attentive of his own feelings. The narrator is sane according to the definition of insanity-…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many authors have a different approach to creating suspense in their writing. In this essay I will be using examples to show this using 2 different short stories from 2 different authors.…

    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “ Insanity means madness; mental illness (Intermediate Dictionary, pg. 451)”. According to recent insanity plea statistics, there has been a significant increase in insanity defense cases across country. In Edgar Allan Poe’s Short story, “ The Tell Tale Heart “, the narrator is insane because he kills the old man , he gets annoyed by his own heart beat , and he was paranoid.…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Tell Tale Heart” is well-written as Edgar Allen Poe creates suspense throughout the scenes in the story. As he does this in an appealing way to attract the reader's interest. This is well written as it starts off with a good introduction about how the old man is loved by the narrator but he wants him dead because of his vulture eye. Edgar Allen Poe then shows direct and indirect characterization about the narrator as he stalks the old man at night planning how he will kill him. As Edgar Allen Poe is great with showing the narrator's emotions through indirect characterization. The story never goes off topic and is in good order from start to finish on the relationship with the narrator and the old man.…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A disturbing man explains his plans, “to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever”(Poe 1). In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale-Heart, a caretaker for an elderly man decides to take the life away from the man due to an absurd reason, one eye of the old man resembled a vulture, making the narrator uneasy. The story was written in the mid 1800’s by Edgar Allen Poe, who lived an interesting, and melancholy life that began in his early childhood. His father left the family when Poe was first born, and Poe became an orphan shortly after at age three when his mother passed away due to complications with tuberculous. Later, Poe was adopted by John and Frances Allan, and continued his young life in a comfortable environment.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “True! -nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dulled them.” (Poe) There are different definitions of legal insanity such as the M 'Naghten Rules which were a reaction to the acquittal in 1843 of Daniel M 'Naghten on the charge of murdering Edward Drummond, whom M’Naghten had mistaken for British Prime Minister, Robert Peel. M 'Naghten fired a pistol at the back of Peel 's secretary, Edward Drummond, who died five days later. The House of Lords asked a panel of judges, presided over by Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, a series of hypothetical questions about the defense of insanity. The principles expounded by this…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    "The Tell Tale Heart" as people say, "This story is told through the eyes of a madman.......Who,like all of us, believed that he was sane." Sanity believe it or not, is harder to keep than you think. One thing that I have learned from "The Tell Tale Heart" which is, obsessing over little things, is that obsession can lead to insanity. As it did for the man when he obsessed over the old man's eye and heart beat. Obsessions are a common thing and my three basic points of this are, the insanity of the man in the story, the obsession of negativity in Poe's life and how his sanity was effected and how obsessions connects with my life and others around me.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    David by Bub bridgers

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Describe a character who changes in a text you have studied, explain what that character change showed as a reader…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tell Tale Heart Diction

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe did not have the greatest life. His mom died when he was just two, he lost the love of his life to the same syndrome that killed his mother and his step-mom. He spent most of his life as a poor man, also his step-dad kicked him out and put him in a bad college. Edgar Allan Poe's story “The Tell-Tale Heart” deals with one's morality and that anyone can take it away whether they have reason to or not.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Good Man Is Hard to Find

    • 2445 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Kennedy. X., & Gioia, D. (2013). Chapter 3: Character. In Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing (12th ed., p.84). Pearson.…

    • 2445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Surrealism

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The central character in a work of literature is called the “protagonist.” The protagonist usually initiates the main action of the story and often overcomes a flaw such as weakness or ignorance to achieve a new understanding by the work’s end. The protagonist’s journey is enriched by encounters with characters who hold differing beliefs. One such character type, a “foil,” has traits that contrast with the protagonist’s and highlight important features of the main character’s personality. The most important…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A successful story needs powerful characters to bring the story alive for the readers, and skillful characterization is needed for such purpose. Characterization is the method used by a writer to develop a character. The method includes showing the character's appearance, displaying the character's actions, revealing the character's thoughts, letting the character speak, and getting the reactions of others. This essay will discuss the different techniques for characterization in The Surest Thing in Show Business and A Chip of Glass Ruby.…

    • 809 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Childs Story

    • 2224 Words
    • 9 Pages

    While reading The Tell Tale Heart it is very hard to decipher between how the story was written and the contents of the story. The main character of the story does not change. In the beginning of the story the narrator experiences conflict between not having a life with passion and being a madman. Throughout the entire story the narrator focuses on murder and the evil that he sees. The insane person who is revealed in the beginning of the story is proven to be the insane person at the end of the story.…

    • 2224 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Characterization

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Characterization is an important tool for writers to use in order to engage the audience and create a more believable situation. An underdeveloped character will have an effect on the overall success of a narrative or drama. Likewise, authors must take care not to favor certain characters too much, presenting them without flaws or…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays