Edgar Allan Poe the Madman\'s

Edgar Allan Poe

The Madman's Point-of-View: Rational and Emotional elements in Edgar Allan Poe's writing in "The Tell-Tale Heart"

In the short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," author Edgar Allan Poe created and developed the character of the Mad Man, who committed the murder of an old man for the simple reason that the old man's blue eye "disturbed" him. What made Poe's short story remarkable was the utilization of the Mad Man's voice, which allowed him to project his state of mind and feelings. The effective portrayal of the Mad Man's thoughts and feelings was an interesting study of Poe's writing style, for it is through these thoughts and feelings that we, the readers, are able to prove and confirm that indeed, the Mad Man had eventually succumbed to insanity, leading him to kill the old man.

In this paper, the main argument presented is that Poe's writing style is crafted in such a way wherein the Madman tries to project that he still thinks rationally and reasonably, while at the same time betraying himself by talking about his feelings towards the old man's blue eye. Combining both the Mad Man's rational narrative and emotional preoccupation with the old man's old eye, it can be said that Poe, in the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," has shown madness in the point-of-view of the Mad Man. That is, as he succumbs to insanity, rational thought and emotional preoccupations remained in conflict with each other, later resulting to his breakdown in front of the authorities. Thus, this paper's organization is based on these two themes: one highlighting the Mad Man's rational thoughts, and the other, centering on his emotional instability.

The best way to demonstrate the madness of the Mad Man is to illustrate him as an individual trying hard to cover up his insanity. On this, Poe had succeeded, where the first part of the story focused on the Mad Man's thoughts about his mental being and the old man's blue eye.

In order to establish the truth of his claim that he is indeed sane and rationally thinking, the Mad Man tried to convince the readers by saying, "...why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses...observe how healthily -how calmly I can tell you the whole story." The Mad Man evidently acknowledges that he is in a mental state where he himself questions, yet denies, the fact that he is losing control over his thoughts and emotions. Poe had made an interesting point in this passage from the Mad Man. For the protagonist, sanity can be proven simply by showing the clarity and coherence of his thoughts. However, as was later shown in the story, this "cover-up" to conceal his insanity was not successful, in the same way that his attempt to conceal the murder of the old man failed.

Poe establishes at this point how in the viewpoint of an insane individual, the line distinguishing insanity from rational thinking becomes blurry. Indeed, the Mad Man's illusion that he is not insane and was fortunate to experience a "sharpening of the senses" was one way of illustrating this blurring of distinction between illusion and reality, sanity and insanity. The Mad Man did not realize that murdering the old man because of his blue eye is irrational; for him, the threatening feeling that he experiences whenever he sees the blue eye is reason enough for him to kill the eyes' owner, who is the old man. In this example, his illusion is that the blue eye is watching and threatening him, while the reality is that he killed the old man because of this perceived threat.

The emotional instability that the Mad Man experienced became evident as the story draws to a close. Though he tries to demonstrate sanity by providing a detailed and objective narration of the manner in which he killed the old man, the Mad Man betrayed himself as he sought to "eliminate" just the source of his unsettling feeling -- the blue eyes, and not the old man:

It was open --wide, wide open --and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness --all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot. And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense? --now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.