In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, he portrays a madman who is struggling with guilt. The madman tries to explain his sanity through his narrative of killing an old man. The madman describes how the old man did no harm to him and he had no reason to kill him. However, the old man’s eye haunted him and drove him to his madness. The madman tries to justify his acts of killing the old man by claiming the only way to rid himself of the eye is to kill the man. Initially, after killing the old man, he applauded himself for his deed and how well he executed it. However, shortly after the police arrived, he was convinced the heartbeat of the now-deceased old man echoed through the house for everyone to hear leading him to confess his sin. Although some people interpret Poe’s infamous story “The Tell-Tale Heart” as a story about how guilt can essentially set someone free, through descriptive and twisted examples Poe shows how guilt can drive a person to self-destruction.
We can presume that the madman is narrating his story from a prison cell because he confessed to the police at the end of the story. This is one example of how Poe highlights the madman’s guilt and how it led to his demise. The story starts with the madman arguing about his sanity. He says how “this disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them” (Poe para. 1). He then goes on to say how the sense that was most affected by this disease was his hearing. When the madman refers to “this disease” he is unknowingly referring to guilt. At first, the madman thinks that his guilt is a powerful tool that is enhancing his life because his senses were amplified. However, this amplification led to intrusive thoughts which then led to cynical actions. It is implied at the end of the story that the madman was arrested because his amplified sense of hearing led him to confess to the police that he murdered the old man. Here his amplified senses represent his insanity and it only worsens as the guilt grows stronger. His guilt is the reason he is in prison. The madman convinced himself that he and the police could hear the heartbeat of the old man under the floorboards, leading him to his confession. Initially, the madman thought that the disease (guilt) was in his favor. However, as the disease (guilt) progressed it only led to paranoia which drove him so mad he admitted to his sins. Here Poe shows how insanity and paranoia can lead to guilt which leads back to more insanity and paranoia. The madman’s initial insanity and paranoia led to his murderous thoughts and actions which then led to guilt. However, the guilt led right back to intensify the madman’s paranoia and insanity through his fixation on specific elements throughout the story such as the heartbeat which led him to confess, and the eye which led him to commit murder.
Poe also emphasized the theme of how guilt can drive a man insane through his description and metaphor of the old man’s eye. The madman describes the old man’s eye as “that of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it” (Poe para. 2). The comparison to a vulture represents how seeing someone for their true selves can be a cruel perception comparatively to how a vulture is cruel and preys on the already dead. Many people try and put on a facade and conceal their thoughts and any wrongdoings they have done. However, the film over the eye represents a lens that can see through the front people put on in front of others to try and show their best selves. In a literal sense, the film most likely represents some sort of eye condition which is seen as impairment by most. However, Poe puts emphasis on the old man’s eye to depict how his impairment is actually allowing him to be able to see the truth. He says that when the eye looks at him his “blood runs cold” and therefore he must free himself of the eye. His blood runs cold because the way the eye sees him horrifies him because he doesn’t want to accept that the eye sees him as his true self. The madman knows he is insane and is trying to convince the audience otherwise when he tells his story. This is the reason he is so afraid of the old man’s eye because it can see the truth of the madman and how insane he really is and what he is capable of.
Finally, we see the illustration of guilt leading to the madman’s self-destruction through the heartbeat. A heart usually symbolizes purity or the love people have in them. Near the end of the story, the madman becomes haunted by the old man’s heartbeat. While talking to the police he describes a ringing noise that will not rid his head. The madman is starting to feel guilty for killing the old man and therefore is beginning to hear a ringing noise that then turns into the sound of a heartbeat. As the ending progresses the madman continues to obsess over the noise. Here the guilt is taking over his entire body to where he can only focus on the ringing noise. Eventually, the noise becomes too much for the madman to bear and he says “Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed! – tear up the planks! – here, here! – it is the beating of this hideous heart!”” (Poe para. 18). Here the heartbeat represents the guilt that the madman feels for killing the old man. The guilt is physically taking over his body and leading to utter paranoia. So much so that he believes he and the police can hear the heartbeat of the dead man. Because of his paranoia which stems from the underlying guilt of killing the man he confesses to what he did to the police. The symbolism of the heart represents the madman’s feelings of remorse for what he had done and the guilt that drove him so mad to hear unrealistic things and eventually give himself up. The guilt the madman feels is increasing the madman’s insanity because even after he confessed to the police he is still obsessing over his actions.
Some people read Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” as how guilt can set a conscience free. However, through various fixations of the narrator, Poe emphasizes the destruction guilt can have on a man’s mind. Initially, the madman saw the disease of guilt as a good thing because it awakened his sense however as the story progresses, the madman’s unconscious guilt leads to his psychiatric downfall. In the story, the madman becomes overly obsessive about various aspects of the old man each representing guilt within and leading to self-destruction. The eye is what drives him to kill because of the guilt he felt about how the eye saw right through him. The sound of the heartbeat is the sound he tried to conceal by killing the old man but ironically is the same sound that made him confess. He could not bear the guilt in any circumstance and the guilt is what consistently drove him to madness. Through the characterization of the madman, Poe shows the demise guilt can have on someone’s conscience.
Works Cited
CmdrClow. “Murder.” [Digital photograph]. Wikipedia, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Murder_title.jpg.
EdgarAllanPoe7. “Old Mans Eye.” [Digital photograph]. Twitter, 2012, https://twitter.com/edgarallanpoe6.
Google Images, Creative Commons license.
“Heart Beat.” [Digital photograph]. Tumblr, https://bonafide-v.tumblr.com/post/51636360548.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The Poe Museum, 2021, https://poemuseum.org/the-tell-tale-heart/.: Originally published in The Pioneer, 1843.
“Self-Destruction.” [Digital photograph]. Vision-tpl, 2012, http://vision-tpl.com/dealersinhope/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/brain-damage.jpg.
“The Tell-Tale Heart (2009) Dir. Robert Eggers (Short Film).” YouTube, uploaded by Hayden Welch, 28 Apr. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0zcYB4AzWg&t=175s.
Featured Image Source:
Google Images, Creative Commons license.