A Tell-Tale Heart
In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, it is revealed from the first few sentences that the narrator is already quite unhinged, despite his attempts to prove otherwise. The second sentence of the first paragraph asks, “why will you say that I am mad?” immediately which he follows with a reference to a mysterious illness which “sharpened [his] senses” and the comment that he “heard many things in hell” before assuring the reader he is not mad, in fact, but very calm and healthy and willing to prove it with the following story. Needless to say, right from the start it is established that the narrator is crazy, and by the end of the next paragraph he's presented to be fully insane.
After the author sets us up to understand he is a very completely logical and reasonable man, he goes on to explain his completely logical and reasonable tale, which details the stalking, murder, and mutilation of his elderly neighbor because he found the old man’s eye to be too creepy. The narrator is obviously not of sound mind, which allows us to understand right from the start where his impulses come from. If the story had begun with a sane man losing his mind by staring at his neighbor’s eye and murdering him in his sleep, it might be much harder to justify and understand. So, by having this psychopathic as the narrator, it makes the sheer horror of the story make sense, in a horrid sort of way. He will say quick asides to the reader like “would a madman have been so wise as this?” to remind us he still perceives himself as fully sane, right after explaining his nightly routine of sneaking into his neighbor’s room to watch him sleep in sick amusement while he plots the man’s murder.
Everything he says seems to be a contradiction to what he is doing, or what is happening around him. If not a contradiction, then a misunderstanding of the scene that truly shows the full mentality of the narrator, such as when he suffocates the old man and says “ …for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall.” Gone is any concern, regret, or sympathy for the old man, as well as any guilt or self awareness of his actions. Instead, the narrator works merrily on, smiling as he admires his own wit at killing a man so effectively.
I don’t believe he understands the descent into madness he has experienced, not does he realize what he sees and hears is all just in his head. While he doesn’t seem to feel guilt or regret over the death, he does seem tortured by the sounds of the man’s heart, which had been hidden in the floorboards. While the narrator acknowledges these sounds and the effect it has on him, never does he pick up on the fact that no one else can hear it. The distinction of what is real and what is not seems to be completely lost on him, as his imagination takes physical form and drives him further and further from his humanity.