Summary: The Narrator From Edgar Allan Poe's Short Story

Writer Stephen King once said 'Monsters are real, ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win.' These words perfectly describe The narrator from Edgar Allan Poe's short story 'a tell-tale heart'. The Narrator is presented as mentally and physically ill, Poe shows this by his hatred of the old man’s evil eye, it consumes him to such a degree that he spends every night waiting for it to open so that he can feel enough rage to kill the old man.

But later, he becomes crazy over a noise like the sound of the old man's heart beating, that only he can hear and becomes consumed with guilt afterwards, and even confesses the murder to the police officers. The narrator is a sociopath, ill, and very paranoid.

The narrator is a sociopath and this is proven throughout the whole story. He is obsessed with proving his sanity. He uses evidence of the strict precision with which he carried out with the murder.

Get quality help now

Sweet V

Verified writer

Proficient in: Free Essays

4.9 (984)

“ Ok, let me say I’m extremely satisfy with the result while it was a last minute thing. I really enjoy the effort put in. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

However, these overly cautious actions ironically prove his insanity rather than his sanity. The dictionary defines a sociopath as 'a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behaviour and a lack of conscience.' Throughout the story, he manifests this. 'Object there was none. Passion there was none. I love the old man he had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold, I had no desire.' If the narrator wasn't unstable he would not have killed someone he loves just because he had an ugly eye.

the narrator's reasoning is demented and unjustifiable, he clearly has an irrational fear of the eye.

Early on in the story, Edgar shows the audience insight into the mind of a madman who shows symptoms of what today is recognized as a mental illness. His flawed reasoning shows his consciousness to reality. Even under those circumstances, the narrator still seems abnormal and frightening because he seems to enjoy spying on the old man. if he wants to kill the man for reasonable reasons, why does he go through such a disturbing process? the narrator shows signs of tinnitus, a condition in which a person hears ringing, buzzing, hissing, chirping, whistling, or other sounds. this condition sounds a lot like the 'disease' the narrator talks about during the story, although it seems more extreme. in some cases, people with tinnitus have to muffle the sound because they become so sensitive to sound it hurts.

Throughout the story, the narrator spends every night going into the old man’s apartment and secretly observing the man sleeping. In the morning, he would behave as if everything were normal. After a week of this, the narrator decides that it is the right time to kill the old man. one night, specifically the eighth night he arrives late, the old man wakes up and calls him out. The narrator remains where he is still stalking the old man as he sits awake and scared. Soon, the narrator hears a muffled pounding that he interprets as the old man’s terrified heartbeats in late scaring the old man. this is a very big sign the narrator needs help he spends every night watching him waiting for the right moment, he seems to manifest paranoia he shows this in the first sentence to being dreadfully nervous, yet he is unable to understand why he is thought to be mad. he views his hypersensitivity as proof of his sanity, not a symptom of madness. However, what makes this narrator mad is that he fails to understand the insanity of his decisions. He does this in precise form, but he unknowingly lays out a tale of murder that proves his madness that he so much wants to deny.

The narrator's insanity is very clear. He's nervous, paranoid, and physically and mentally ill. He doesn't know the difference between the 'real' and the 'unreal,' and seems to be completely alone and friendless in the world.