1. Christine Johnson
January 21, 2016
English 112
Research Paper
Edgar Allen Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart

2. “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allen Poe, is a gothic fiction story. The story uses
suspense, guilt, and the descent into derangement to deal with the concept of insanity. “This
trademark horror tale shows Poe at the height of his imaginative and artistic powers, with its
boldly original story line, exquisitely rendered form, and psychological complexity. The simple
2,200-word first-person narrative is the confession by a murderer to a grisly but apparently
motiveless crime. The protagonist's madness is obvious from the beginning, but in his retelling
of the story, the line between truth and hallucination is left blurred, disarming the reader and
making the events in a madman's imagination seem chillingly real,” (enotes)
In his discussions of the short story form, Poe insisted that each element of a story
contribute to its total effect. Enotes states that "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a perfect demonstration
of this injunction and every carefully crafted nuance of the tale contributes to its overall unity,
from the narrator's protestations about his sanity in the opening lines to his confession in the last.
They also state that the stylistic device of repeated phrases echoing the obsessiveness of the
narrator's mind, and the interwoven symbolism creates a frighteningly charged effect.
Edgar Allen Poe’s insanity and madness played a big role in the stories plot. “Poe’s
classic short story of murder and madness is here subtly but effectively repurposed to haunt the
dreams of a whole new generation of readers.It’s been 170 years since Poe’s chilling first-person
narrative was first published in an ill-fated Boston-based magazine called The Pioneer. But this
marvelously restrained iPad app might just be the ultimate platform for conveying the
claustrophobic creepiness inherent in Poe’s gothic tale of a killer betrayed by his own insanity,”
(Kirku.)
Kirku points out that scratches of Poe’s first-person narration are found scrawled on a
textured background that resembles a pitted wall and that they must be manipulated, twisted and

3. turned in order to discover the next outburst of literary lunacy. He states that it was slowly and
even painstakingly, tracing the story in this most tactile way brilliantly mirrors the disjointed,
zigzagging inner workings of the protagonist’s tortured mind while also creating an
uncomfortable intimacy with the unnamed antihero. Additionally, Kirku adds following the
crooked etchings which vary in font as well as physical orientation up, down, over and around
conjures an unmistakable feeling of being alone in the dark with an unwelcome someone reading
over your shoulder. In reviewing Poe’s story, Kirku concludes that Poe’s eerily elegiac prose is
faithfully rendered, and isolating it bit by bit while maintaining a linear, if wildly undulating
flow adroitly capitalizes on the rising tension.
Suspense was one of the main factors in the story. “Poe's writing style is very suspenseful
and keeps even the most reluctant reader engaged. It is written so well that it is extremely easy
to visualize. Also, this story, due to its incredible suspense, is great for having students make
predictions and discuss whether they were accurate,” (Woods.) Woods states that students love
to predict where the story is going to go, but many will find their predictions are way off as they
don't suspect the narrator will actually kill the old man. He follows by telling that students also
love to try and figure out the relationship between the old man and the narrator as well as the
narrator's interest in the old man's ‘vulture’ eye and these debatable topics always lend
themselves to interesting discussions.
The suspense in this story was made up in various ways. “This is a great little story – no-
one does the madman telling his story as effectively as Poe. He doesn’t mess about – the story is
only a couple of thousand words long, but it’s all in the writing – the repetitions, yes, the
repetitions, the dramatic use of dashes – of dashes! – the exclamation marks!! And please note,

4. modern horror writers he sticks to the point. We know nothing about the old man or the narrator,
not even their names,” (Mabbott.)
Mabbot shares that the house is not described except where essential for the plot, but it
doesn’t matter and in fact, the delicious vagueness makes it even more creepy. He then asks the
following questions, Was the old man sweet or nasty? What drove our narrator mad? Why were
they living together? Friends? Master and servant? Man and wife?, and state that there’s nothing
to actually say the narrator is a man. Following his questions he state that you could spend hours
making up your own background story, and that Poe has left plenty of room between the lines,
but don’t try to do it when the lights are out.
With suspense being a big factor in the story, more in depth details of the old man is
longed for by man different readers. “Very little is known of the old man that was murdered by
the narrator. What we know of him is based on what the narrator tells us. The narrator himself
believes he may have been a nice individual, saying "He had never wronged me." He does,
however, also state that the man may have been evil due to his eye. It should be noted that the
narrator's view is highly unreliable, and therefore we will never know the true character of the
old man,” (Short Stories Analyzed)
Although suspense was one factor of the story, one reason the story was so suspenseful
was due to the narrators madness. “The first-person narration is one of the strongest tools for
creating suspense in the narrative. Throughout the story, the narrator questions his own madness,
and it is clear pretty quickly that the narrator is, in fact, mentally unstable. The reader is never
sure what the narrator will do next because he is insane, and the rules of logic do not apply to his
thoughts or actions. The reader can also not be sure what is real in the story, since the narrator

5. may be hallucinating. This creates suspense because it takes some time to determine what is real
and what is not,” (Seattle pi)
Along with suspense, guilt was something that the narrator could not hide. Ultimately
guilt was the narrators down fall. “Guilt can reveal a person’s madness. In the beginning of The
Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, the mad man, the narrator, calmly tells the reader of how he
killed his boss, the old man. Throughout the story, the mad man becomes enraged by his boss
eye since it looks like a vulture’s eye that always watched him. He is also angered by the
heartbeat of the old man’s heart. The narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart evolves hiding his insanity
to revealing his madness to the reader,” (Cox.) Cox discusses how throughout “The Tell-Tale
Heart” the narrator’s insanity develops more and more. Following, she point out how he goes
from wanting to tell a story to killing his boss and exposing the murder to the police officers.
Lastly, Cox expresses that guilt can cause you to do things that you will regret.
“Ultimately, the narrator tells his story of killing his housemate. Although the narrator
seems to be blatantly insane, and thinks he has freedom from guilt, the feeling of guilt over the
murder is too overwhelming to bear. The narrator cannot tolerate it and eventually confesses his
supposed 'perfect'; crime,” (Good Reads.) Good Reads states that people tend to think that
insane persons are beyond the normal realm of reason shared by those who are in their right
mind. Following, they conclude This is not so; guilt is an emotion shared by all humans and the
most demented individuals are not above the feeling of guilt and the havoc it causes to the
psyche. Expressing that, they tell that Poe’s use of setting, character, and language reveal that
even an insane person feels guilt. “The emotion of guilt easily, if not eventually, crashes through
the seemingly unbreakable walls of insanity,” (Good Reads.)

6. In conclusion, The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe, is a gothic fiction story. The
story uses suspense, guilt, and the descent into derangement to deal with the concept of insanity.
In my paper I supported these factors with textual evidence from cited sources.
Work Cited
Cox, Sidney. "Book Review: Israfel: the Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe." The Sewanee
Review. 35.2 (1927): 241-243. Print.

7. "How Does Edgar Allan Poe Keep the Reader in Suspense in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?" Seattle Pi.
Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
"Short Stories Analyzed." The Tell Tale Heart. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
Mabbott, Thomas O. "Book Review: the Book of Poe: Tales, Criticism, Poems." American
Literature. 2.1 (1930): 101-102. Print.
"The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings." Goodreads. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
"THE TELL TALE HEART by Edgar Allan Poe , Rocket Chair Media | Kirkus Reviews."
Kirkus Reviews. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
"The Tell-Tale Heart Essay - The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe - ENotes.com." Enotes.com.
Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Woods, George B. English Poetry and Prose of the Romantic Movement. Chicago: Scott,
Foresman, 1950. Print.