The conflict’s the narrator had to deal with were both between himself and with society. The narrator’s internal conflict consisted of him trying to convince himself that he was sane and had every reason to commit the immoral sins of murdering the old man. He murdered this man solely because of his eye, or at least that’s what he kept saying in the short passage. He was having intense thoughts about committing this crime and trying to convince himself and society that he did this for multiple reasons and that his reasons were 100% justifiable. He constantly had a battle with himself to solely make himself feel like that actions he took upon were okay.
In the story The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator is writing the story because he is trying to convince the reader that he is not mad. At the beginning it seems believable until he starts to describe his obsession with the old man’s vulture eye. At this point the reader realize that this person is gradually growing insane. His effort to stop a human life just because of physical imperfection was thought of insanity. Who with right mind would even been thinking about such thing and even the narrator himself said, “It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my head…”.
James Russell Lowell first published “The Tell-Tale Heart” in 1843 in the Boston Magazine. It was then published 7 additional times during Poe’ lifetime. It is told my an unnamed narrator who tries to convince the reader that he is not insane, but in the end decided to kill an old man due to the fact that he had a “vulture-eye”. “The Black Cat” is another short story by Edgar Allan Poe, which was first published on August 19, 1843 in The Saturday Evening Post. In the story, a narrator carefully conceals his murder but in the end he reveals his crime, as his conscience acting up.
While Edgar Allan Poe as the narrator of the The Tell-Tale Heart has the reader believe that he was indeed sane, his thoughts and actions throughout the story would prove otherwise. As the short story unfolds, we see the narrator as a man divided between his love for the old man and his obsession with the old man’s eye. The eye repeatedly becomes the narrator’s pretext for his actions, and while his delusional state caused him much aggravation, he also revealed signs of a conscience. In the first paragraph of the short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe establishes an important tone that carries throughout his whole story, which is ironic. The narrator proclaims that there is no possible way that he could be a madman, because he is too calm and wise to be insane.
Therefore it may be possible that the eye depicted on the old man sees through the narrator and sees the demon within him. The narrator, in knowing this, as see when his blood turns cold, hates the eye and wishes it
For example, in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” it says, “Yes, he was stone, stone dead.” and in “The Black Cat,” it says, “I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan.” These both have the characters’ murder someone that they loved. Also, in both stories they hide the bodies. For instance, in “The Black Cat,” it says, “Moreover, in one of the walls was a projection, caused by a false chimney, or fireplace, that had been filled up, and made to resemble the rest of the cellar.” and in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” it says, “… then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings.” The mad men tried to hide the bodies of the people that they killed. Finally, they both confess to the murder.
The text states, “He has the eye of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees--very gradually--I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” The narrator did not want to kill the old man because of his personality, but only because of his “vulture eye”. We wouldn’t know this was his motivation if this story was not told in first person. One would think that he despised the old man because of his actions, but it was just something on the old man’s surface that made the narrator think so poorly of him. First person narration allows the reader to dig deeper into the story, and see the true meaning of scenes, and it allows them to understand the story better.
The Characteristics of the Narrator: Tell-Tale Heart “Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, uses a very interesting narrative perspective, which he tries to prove himself that he is sane, but he isn’t, by the context of the words in this short story. Poe’s experience with many other creepy and interesting stories develop with this sort of suspense, as it reaches the heightening point, the climax. The importance of this first-person narrator perspective is the clockwork which synchronizes to the suspense and mystery of the plot, displaying the character’s irony. The setting, the introduction of characters, the conflict, and the resulting end brings an interesting sight to the plot. The narrator introduces himself as the main character, neither the protagonist or the antagonist.
Edgar Allen Poe specialized in the horror genre. Poe is known for dealing with various different main characters and settings, to make his stories more interesting. The main character in “The Tell Tale Heart” was the narrator. This gives a different feel to the story as the main character is telling the story from his point of view. An old, dark, creaky house is the setting of “The Tell Heart, which is important because it causes the reader to feel suspense while reading the
It was a low, dull, quick sound-much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not” (Poe). This quotation from The Tell-Tale Heart explains the mental state that the narrator was in. This is after the caretaker murdered the old man due to his known vulture eye, which taunted the narrator throughout the living time of the old man. It also tells the reader that the sound is indeed fake.