Poe Response

The Tell Tale Heart is one of Edgar Allen Poe’s most well known poems. The narrator, who is not given a name, recites the event of him killing an old man which he was acquainted with. He recollects not only the event of actually killing the old man but the seven days before hand. But it is interesting why he wants to kill the old man in the first place. One would think that the narrator dislikes the old man for maybe the way he is to him, but this is incorrect. The old man has a glass eye that for what ever reason shoots terror into the narrator. So much terror that he decides to kill the old man. While describing the preceding seven days before the killing he goes into great detail of what he did. He claims that it would take him close to an hour just to get his head inside the door. In the morning he would walk into the old man’s room and ask him how he slept every morning for those seven days, just to see if the old man noticed him. The eighth night the deed he has been planning finally takes place. After slowly sneaking into the room he pounces on the old man. Before it can be done the old man lets out one loud shriek. This worried the man dearly, in fear that a neighbor may have heard this shriek. After easing himself that no one heard the shriek he took great precautions to dispose of the body. He dismembered the body by cutting off the head and the limbs. He hid the body under three wooden planks in his house. After this task was done, what he dreaded before became a reality. A knock on the door indicates the presence of three police men. He is very confidante that he is done a good job at hiding the body he lets them to examine the house. After the police are satisfied no foul play has occurred they sat to have a conversation. Soon after the conversation starts the man begins to hear a low thump. As the conversation proceeds this thump continues to grow louder. He looks around and it appears that the officers do not hear the sounds. It still
continues to grow louder until finally he pulls up the planks and displays the heart of the old man. The narrator is a very interesting fellow through out the whole story. It immediately begins with the man’s conviction to killing the old man in the first place. It is all because of a pale blue glass eye the old man has. Other than that there is no other reason he desires to kill him. The actions he takes preceding the killing also shows some very unique qualities. It shows the qualities of perfection and complete planning. The confidence of the man is also very amazing. When the police show up he is so confident he invites them in. Although the time was different when the story was written, in all reality it was the perfect murder. Carefully planned and out when the time came it was quickly accomplished. The swiftness and cleanliness is also mind boggling. However the perfect murder was not accomplished due to a guilty consciousness. His keen sense enables him to hear the heart continuing to beat and it drives him mad until he rips up the planks and unveils the heart. This action of the man reveals what I think the theme of the story is which his denial of madness.
The first question out of the man is, but will you say I am mad? He immediately argues his case by saying a mad man would not take such precautions as he did to complete his task. He uses the example of how it would take him an hour just to get his head inside the door, asking would a mad man be this wise. However he does put up a good argument on denying his madness. Claiming that what the readers have quickly deemed “madness” is not madness at all, but rather a acquired skill of extreme over acuteness of the senses. I believe that some people would actually begin to buy into this, saying that this is a very good explanation. But as continues to describe his precautions on concealing the body, I personally jump right back onto the madness train. The final actions of the man finally confirm his madness. Which until now he tried so faithfully to deny. As mentioned before, feeling very confident with himself he invites the police men in. His “keen” senses enable him to hear the heart continue to beat. This is the final action confirming his madness. Common sense tells us after such a brutal dismemberment as the old man went through, there would be no way for the heart to continue on to beat on.