The Tell-Tale Heart - Edger Allen Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) by Edger Allen Poe was written 171 years ago, yet still it has an effect on the modern reader. Poe writes in first person perspective as a stylistic strategy to allow the audience insight into the inner workings of a deranged psychopath's mind. It's quite ghastly the way in which he depicts his warped sense of pleasure with having been rid of the 'evil eye'.  He incessantly proclaims his sanity, almost as if he's trying to convince himself. All in all The Tell-Tale Heart is quite an entertaining read. At only 2145 words its not awfully time consuming but, perfect for some light reading on a dreary winters night.

Poe uses whats called an 'unreliable' narrator. This basically means the storyteller's viewpoint is compromised in some way. In this instance it's quite obvious we're dealing with a lunatic. The unnamed narrator opens by saying that he is nervous but not mad. Throughout the story he keeps making it a point to protest his sanity "Ha! Would a madmen have been so wise...". Every night he lurks into the room of an old man, until he finally decides the time is right for him to commit murder. He has no other motive than a hatred for the old man's glassy eye.

There are a lot of theories over the meaning of the 'evil-eye' but, I like to think of it as a clever play on words. The 'evil-eye' or 'evil I'? It seems like it could be an indirect confession. In fact the entire short story seems to be riddled with symbolism. For instance, take the lantern as an example of this. Every night the narrator shines a single beam of light on the old man's eye. He's disheartened to find the eye always closed. This single beam ensures that when the eye is open, only it is illuminated. The rest of the old man is masked by the dark. Consider why this was  important to the narrator. My best guess is it's because he cares for the old man "I loved the old man, he had never wronged me". What motive then does he have for murder? It was the eye. The narrator needed to separate the old man from the eye to gain the courage to destroy it. The lantern provided the means for this. He thought of the eye as 'evil' and what combats evil no better than light? In religion light is often thought of as a source of good and purity. I guess it's irony that he uses the light to aid him with something so ghastly.

The Tell-Tale Heart feels very much like a claustrophobic, nightmarish decent into madness. It's archaic, yet in it's own way it could easily compete with contemporary thrillers. Poe achieves this by sparingly revealing details about the murder bit by bit. Readers are constantly on edge, waiting for the next piece of information. This way the suspense builds up until all is revealed right at the end.
The finale is brilliant. Until then the narrator had been quite confident with the disposal of the body. However he begins to get nervous and agitated. It is then that a familiar noise creeps into his ear. It gets louder and louder till he can no longer bear it. He assumes it's from the corpse "the beating of his hideous heart!" he shrieks. I think Poe intended it to be the beating of the narrator's heart gradually increasing in volume and speed as he begins to doubt his security.