Guilt in a Heartbeat
Guilt in a Heartbeat
Through the heart beat from the Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe shows that all bad deeds come with endless guilt. This short story illustrates that the obsession of the narrator, who is an everyday man, drives him to commit murder to an old man that has done no harm nor insult the narrator. This also goes to show that a man’s conscience can be his own enemy. The Tell-Tale Heart explores various ideas that reassure the insanity that drove the narrator to commit unjustified murder, and the narrator provides this information by describing what kind of character he is. Poe also writes in a very effective point of view that allows the audience to understand completely all the narrators transitions, then the audience is able to see how the setting of the story fits perfectly in this story, finally Poe is able to create various symbolisms injected in the story that justify the narrator’s actions.
The narrator does not reveal a specific name, but does reveal that he is a care giver to the old man which is the only identity given in the short story. Through the short story it’s shown that the narrator is not a dynamic character, because at the beginning of the story he is insane and at the end he is still insane, which reveals that the character has no change or growth throughout the whole story. But the only part where he develops a kind of change and growth is when the narrator hears the corpse’s heartbeat from beneath the floor he screams in agony saying “Villains! Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! — tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!”(Poe 18) which makes him a conscious of the big mistake and horrible crime he has committed. This small change and growth of the main character is very visible in the story due to the point of view that the story is being told.
The point of view of the story is very effective because the Tell-Tale Heart is written in first person. The narrator is the main character in the
Through the heart beat from the Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe shows that all bad deeds come with endless guilt. This short story illustrates that the obsession of the narrator, who is an everyday man, drives him to commit murder to an old man that has done no harm nor insult the narrator. This also goes to show that a man’s conscience can be his own enemy. The Tell-Tale Heart explores various ideas that reassure the insanity that drove the narrator to commit unjustified murder, and the narrator provides this information by describing what kind of character he is. Poe also writes in a very effective point of view that allows the audience to understand completely all the narrators transitions, then the audience is able to see how the setting of the story fits perfectly in this story, finally Poe is able to create various symbolisms injected in the story that justify the narrator’s actions.
The narrator does not reveal a specific name, but does reveal that he is a care giver to the old man which is the only identity given in the short story. Through the short story it’s shown that the narrator is not a dynamic character, because at the beginning of the story he is insane and at the end he is still insane, which reveals that the character has no change or growth throughout the whole story. But the only part where he develops a kind of change and growth is when the narrator hears the corpse’s heartbeat from beneath the floor he screams in agony saying “Villains! Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! — tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!”(Poe 18) which makes him a conscious of the big mistake and horrible crime he has committed. This small change and growth of the main character is very visible in the story due to the point of view that the story is being told.
The point of view of the story is very effective because the Tell-Tale Heart is written in first person. The narrator is the main character in the
Cited: Poe, Edgar A. The Tell-Tale Heart. 2010. Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. By X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2010. 36-40. Print.