The Tell-Tale Heart Group

Question:

richie-rich
richie-rich
Student

Why does the narrator kill the old man?

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Posted by richie-rich on Monday January 29, 2007 at 2:50 PM and tagged with answer the question, the tell-tale heart.

Answers:


  1. brandih

    eNotes Editor

    For an unknown reason, the old man's cloudy, pale blue eye has incited madness in the narrator. Whenever the old man looks at him, his blood turns cold. Thus, he is determined to kill him to get rid of this curse.

    Sources:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tell-Tale_Heart
    http://www.enotes.com/tell-tale-heart/6388

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    Posted by brandih on Monday January 29, 2007 at 3:20 PM


  2. brendawm Teacher
    High School - 9th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Although there is no specific reason given for the narrator's murdering of the old man, it seems as though there is some severe psychological problem present.  Although it is just a guess, it sounds a little like paranoid schizophrenia.

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    Posted by brendawm on Tuesday July 31, 2007 at 6:42 PM


  3. julierunacres Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    This is a story in which the doppelganger, or double, is key. Poe has the narrator say a number of things that point to his identification with the old man. Even the apparently random 'eye' the narrator gives as his reason for the murder is a homonym of 'I', and so the narrator can in a real sense be seen to be killing the old man in an act of loathing directed at himself.

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

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    Posted by julierunacres on Sunday July 12, 2009 at 7:41 AM

  4. revolution
    revolution Teacher
    Doctorate

    This was all caused by the narrator's fear of the old man's cold blue eyes, it was not that he was mad or crazy as his cool and measured actions was not the type a madmen would behaved regularly. Every single night, he would approached the old man's house and observed him sleeping in his bed and in the morning, he would behaved in a way that nothing had happened and everything was back to normal, no trouble whatsoever. After a few weeks of observation, he thought randomly it was time to kill the old man, which was really out of a sudden and unexpected. This story was trying to to provide a detailed study and a analysis of paranoia and madness through a short story.

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    Posted by revolution on Saturday August 15, 2009 at 6:22 AM