The Tell-Tale Heart | The First-Person Narrative Viewpoint in the “Tell-Tale Heart”
In the following essay, R. Moore examines the functions of the particular narrative viewpoint in Poe’s story, such as a heightened dramatic impact, and insight into the character’s motivation.
The use of an unreliable first-person narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" serves a number of crucial functions. By telling this story from the viewpoint of a deranged major character, Poe provides us with insight into that character's motivation in committing murder as well as his purpose in relating it to the reader, justifies the "open-ended" resolution of the story's plot, and above all, intensifies the dramatic impact of his tale. True, "The Tell-Tale Heart" could have been recounted from an alternative perspective, that of an omniscient third-person narrator,...
[The entire page is 1716 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
Tell a friend about The Tell-Tale Heart at eNotes.
