FREE ESSAY ON CHARACTER ANALYSIS-TELL TALE HEART

CHARACTER ANALYSIS-TELL TALE HEART

Steven Schwartz Rockland Community College 
The short story can produce many different types of characters. Usually, these characters
are faced with situations that give us an insight into their true character. In the Tell
Tale Heart, a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator of the story is faced
with a fear. He is afraid of the Old Man's Eye. The actions that this narrator performs
in order to quell his fear can lead others to believe that he suffers from some sort of
mental illness.
The very fact that this narrator is so repulsed by the old man's eye, which he refers to
as the evil eye, is reason enough to be suspicious of his character. The narrator has an
inner struggle with the thought that the evil eye is watching him and an underlying
feeling that the evil eye will see the real person that he has become. This paranoia
leads the narrator to believe that the only way he can put down his fears is to kill the
old man.
It is said that denial is usually the sign of a problem. If this holds true, then the
narrator has the characteristics of a madman. In the first paragraph, he asks, but why
will you say that I am mad! (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) This statement can be looked upon as a
statement made by someone going through a paranoid episode. He talks as if he is in
frenzy, especially when he talks about hearing things in heaven and in hell. The disease
had sharpened my senses...Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in
the heaven...I heard many things in hell. (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) The disease that the
narrator is talking about eats away at his conscience until [I] made up my mind to take
the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. (Kennedy & Gioia, 34)
The progression of the story revolves around the actions of the narrator. He describes
the wise ways in which he prepares himself to commit this deed. The way the narrator
stalks the old man the whole week before he kills him can be evidence of a problem. Every
night he would watch the old man sleep. He found comfort in knowing that the eye was not
watching him, that it could not see the true evil within his soul. While the eye was
closed, so was the idea of killing the old man. It is not until the old man awakens each
day that the struggle within is apparent. This may be the reason why the narrator is so
obsessed with watching the old man sleep. 
The actual act of murder, which the narrator believes was premeditated, was in fact a
spur of the moment action. He toiled with the idea while the man was awake, that is,
while he could see the evil eye. However, while the eye was closed, the narrator was at
peace. 
One night, during one of the narrator's stalking sessions, the old man awakens. The
narrator goes into a paranoid frenzy, mistaking the beating of his heart for the beating
of the old man's heart. During this frenzy, the narrator is afraid that neighbors will
hear the beating of the man's heart. This causes the narrator to take action. He quickly
subdues the old man and kills him. He then takes extreme steps in disposing of the body,
dismembering it and burying it under the planks in the floorboard. These extreme actions
can be used as evidence to the paranoia that is taking shape. The fear of getting caught
would be a normal reaction to someone who has committed a murder. However, the
dismemberment of the body was not necessary since the narrator had ample resources to
dispose of the body properly. 
When the police arrive at the house, the narrator is sure that he has nothing to fear. He
lets them into the house and bids them to search wherever they like. He leads them into
the room where the body is buried and invites them to sit down. Although he fears nothing
consciously, the narrator battles with his conscience subconsciously. He begins to feel
uneasy when the officers start talking to him. The paranoia begins to build steadily and
before long, the narrator hears the beating of his heart, which he again mistakes for the
beating of the corpse's heart. This implication gives further evidence to the paranoid
nature of the narrator. The beating grows louder to him and, since it is his heart
beating, the officers could not hear it. This made the narrator even uneasier since he
could not understand why they could not hear it as well. A short while later and after a
rabid inner struggle, the narrator, in a fit of rage, admits to his crime, believing that
the police officer were aware of what he had done. This is the pinnacle of his paranoid
state. The idea that the officers were just toying with him, that they knew all along
that he had murdered, presents a clear case of paranoid psychosis. Despite the narrator's
cunning plan of how to commit the murder and how to dispose of the body, his own
sub-conscience becomes his undoing. The sound of the old man's heartbeat continues to
taunt the narrator and his reaction to his subconscious thoughts causes him to admit his
crime to the police.