The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe Through a Psychological Lens

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe Through a Psychological Lens

Introduction

Literature is a unique kind of art that has always been used by people for various purposes. It helps authors to discuss particular ideas and emotions or attract the public attention to a particular issue. In most cases, texts touch upon eternal concepts, such as love, hatred, or relations and issues that will always be interesting for human beings. The mind of a human being, how it works, and problems it might face belong to the list of most popular topics. For this reason, many famous works can be analyzed applying the psychological paradigm as the main hero’s actions, their solutions, and motifs are taken from real life and described by authors in detail. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the masters of psychological stories, and his masterpiece “The Tell-Tale Heart” combines psychological, detective, and horror elements to impress readers and create a certain effect.

Plot Summary

The short story has a specific style and language seen from the first lines. It is a first-person narrative told by an anonymous person who wants to ensure readers that they are sane. The main character describes the murder of an older man with an appearance that made the storyteller nervous and suspicious. The central character describes the calculation of the murder, his/her attempts to commit a perfect crime, and the process of hiding the body (Poe 64). All these comments are supported by the narrator’s assurances that he/she is sane and he/she does not have any mental problems. However, the story ends with the central figure confessing to the police because of the sound of a heart “louder it became, and louder” (Poe 67). The story does not have unnecessary elements, and its plot ends with the strongest moment as the central figure cannot cope with his insanity anymore.

Psychological Elements

Applying the psychological perspective, it is possible to state that the short story is a perfect example of how the author uses peculiarities of people’s behavior to emphasize their madness or inability to handle the situation. The narrator of the story acts as a typical patient with multiple mental problems, which can be seen by his/her motifs, ideas, obsession, and compulsive thoughts. From this perspective, Edgar Allen Poe manages to create a realistic hero who helps to convey the atmosphere of insanity, fear, and anxiety (Shulman 246). It affects readers and makes them feel uncomfortable, which is one of the main purposes of the author. Demonstrating the ill psyche of a murderer, his/her strange motifs, and beliefs, Poe also shows how madness works and affects people (Kachur 50). From this angle, the short story becomes a perfect example of how a text uses various psychological ideas and moments.

Symbols

One of the main motifs for killing an older man is his eye. The narrator constantly focuses on it, repeating “I think it was his eye,” “the eye of a vulture,” “the eye of one of those terrible birds” (Poe 64). Moreover, he admits that the decision to kill a person was made because of it “I had to kill the old man and close that eye forever!” (Poe 65). Finally, the central character says, “His eye would trouble me no more!” (Poe 66). In such a way, the word eye acquires a symbolic meaning and stands for the character’s inner vision, his/her self-representation, and the ability to take a detached view on his/her actions and critically analyze them (Shulman 260). The eye is sick, it has a veil covering it, meaning that the narrator is also not healthy and has mental problems. Constantly repeating this word, he/she emphasizes this fact and, at the same time, he/she cannot understand it.

Problem Words

The literary work offers another problem word that affects the central figure. Telling the story, the narrator focuses on hearing, stating, “Have I not told you that my hearing had become unusually strong?” (Poe 66). It can be the first sign of severe mental problems peculiar to the hero. Hearing noises and things that no one else can hear can be referred to as hallucinations, which are usually symptoms of mental disease with multiple complications and high risks both for a person and people surrounding him/her (Kachur 49). At the end of the story, the narrator confesses as the sound of heart beating becomes unbearable for him “But why does his heart not stop beating?! Why does it not stop!?” (Poe 67). It means that he/she is not able to control hallucinations and mind anymore. He/she gives up metaphorically and literally, as his/her crime destroys the psyche.

Oedipal Complex

The story a