The Tell-Tale Heart Group

Question:

papi
papi
Student
High School - 11th Grade

What does the un-named narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" symbolize/teach us?

Why did poe choose to do this?

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Posted by papi on Thursday February 5, 2009 at 5:20 PM and tagged with characters, narrator, symbolism, the tell-tale heart, themes.

Answers:


  1. ms-mcgregor Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Many critics who wrote at the time Poe published the story, considered it to be a parable, or story with a moral, about how guilty people betray themselves through their own conscious. Poe also may be trying to arouse sympathy for the narrator's mental illness by having the narrator tell us his story in his own disjointed and obviously insane manner. We have to have a little sympathy for a man who really considers himself sane and yet is so obviously insane. The narrator never once says he is innocent, just that he could not stand the old man's eye. He is sure the eye is evil. The forces which drive him are obviously uncontrollable and Poe's writing allows us to see that some violent acts are not committed out of malice, but simply mental disease.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/tell-tale-heart

    Rate answer:

    Posted by ms-mcgregor on Thursday February 5, 2009 at 5:36 PM