The Narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart :: Tell-Tale Heart Essays

The Narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart   through with(predicate) the first person fabricator, Edgar Allan Poes The Tell-Tale Heart illustrates how humankinds imagination is capable of being so vivid that it profoundly affects peoples lives. The manifestation of the narrators imagination unconsciously plants seeds in his mind, and those seeds gain into an unmanageable situation for which there is no room for reason and which culminates in murder. The narrator takes care of an over-the-hill man with whom the relationship is unclear, although the narrators comment of For his meretricious I had no desire (Poe 34) lends itself to the fact that the old man may be a family member whose death would monetarily benefit the narrator. Moreover, the narrator in addition intimates a caring relationship when he says, I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult (34). The narrators coercion with the old mans meat culminates in his own undoing as he is engulfed with internal conflict and his own transformation from confidence to guilt.   The fixation on the old mans vulture-like eye forces the narrator to concoct a plan to distract the old man. The narrator confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold and so by degrees - in truth gradually - I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever (34). The narrator begins his tale of betrayal by trying to urge the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the narrator indeed is out of control. The fact that the old mans eye is the only motive to murder proves the narrator is so mentally unstable that he must(prenominal) search for justification to kill. In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye.   The narrator wrestles with conflicting feelings of responsibility to the old man and feelings of ridding his conduct of the mans Evil Eye (34). Alt hough afflicted with overriding fear and derangement, the narrator tacit acts with quasi-allegiance toward the old man however, his kindness may stem more from protect himself from suspicion of watching the old man every night than from existent compassion for the old man.