Terror in \"The Tell-Tale Heart\"

Terror in "The Tell-Tale Heart" true story of terror is one that frightens us from the inside out. Tales that contain just enough truth for us to believe that they might be true pull us into the realm of terror because nothing is more frightening than the truth. One story that demonstrates this point is "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. This story is an adventure in terror that begins with madness and ends with murder. Poe's ability to craft the perfect story of terror is illustrated in "The Tell-Tale Heart" because he takes us into the mind of the narrator. The narrator is the most frightening aspect of this story because his thoughts and actions are truly frightening. He is most terrifying because he is a man that seems ordinary and human. Poe introduces us to a man that claims to be sane but proves otherwise by the end of the tale. His thoughts are extreme and his actions are worse, illustrating the absolute worst of mankind. He is a ruthless killer that believes he is justified because of his anxiety. We are frightened because of what madness can do to an individual. We are frightened because we are confronted with a certain amount of truth. By taking us into the crazed mind of a madman, Poe frightens us from the inside out - demonstrating that a true terror story works from the mind first and last. "The Tell-Tale heart" is a step into the surreal because it is just real enough to be believable and unreal enough to be considered a horror tale. However, the sad fact regarding this tale is that it is just true enough to be terrifying.

The Tell-Tale Heart" becomes a trip in terror because Poe takes inside the mind of a man that is crazy. While the narrator in this tale claims to be sane, we soon discover otherwise. His state of mind is directly related to the intensity of the tale and his inner dialogue is the tool that Poe uses to heighten the narrator's madness and our terror G.R. Thompson agrees with this, adding that Poe is a "master of the interior monologue of a profoundly disturbed mind. His fictional dramatizations of mental turmoil operate on several levels, from gruesome physical shock, to spiritual anguish, to subtle manipulation of narrative point-of-view" (Thompson). He states, "Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight -- with what dissimulation I went to work!" (Poe 1). His denial of his madness should be our first clue that something is wrong. It is the fascination with the old man's "Evil Eye" (1) that is our first clue that the narrator is insane. The eye is disturbing enough to make the narrator want to kill the old man even though he claims to love him. The narrator's disturbing mental state is matched by his bizarre behavior. His experiences are not of this world and they are clouded by his irrational thinking. For example, as he watches the old man sleep, he thinks, "Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers -- of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph" (1). Here we see how the narrator's experiences are amplified by his madness. Clearly, he is in his own world. His madness is exemplified with the sound of the old man's heart beating. Thompson claims that with "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe "perfected the Gothic tale of terror, horror, and mystery" (Thompson). Indeed, we are taken with this tale because we are faced with a man that does not know his own madness and that is terrifying.

By using madness as a tool for terror, Poe is forcing us to face something about humanity. In short, at any time, any one of us could snap and become like this narrator. We must not only face this madness about each other but ourselves as well. Jack Sullivan writes that "The Tell Tale Heart" is successful because of its "insight and consistency of tone and atmosphere" (Sullivan 323). Poe creates fear through a fellow human being, which is much more terrifying than a monster or other creature created from the imagination. The narrator becomes his own enemy in this story. We are afraid because we realize the frailty of man. Jay Parini writes that this technique is successful because Poe's stories are "tales of intrusion -- whether culmination in the act of violent murder or in the psychological violation of another person or in describing the internal war of the divided self" (Parini 269). The narrator in this tale internalizes "elements of anxiety and fear pushed to an unrelenting extreme" (269). We can see this extreme in the narrator's thought processes as he continues to watch the old man's eye. For instance, he says:

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. (Poe 2)

Here we see how the narrator's anxiety has pushed him to an extreme in this scene, a prelude to the old man's murder. The anxiety is produced by the eye and only intensifies as the narrator thinks of it.

This form of fear is transferred to us as we become involved in the story and realize the dreadfulness of the narrator's state of being. Michael Burduck believes that Poe delves into the realm of "pain, decay, and terror" to "enlighten the dark tunnels of human life" (Burduck 102). Madness is never a path that is filled with light and our narrator illustrates this perfectly as he moves closer and closer to the dark side of reason. Nothing illustrates this more than when the narrator decides to kill the old man and does so, neatly cleaning up the mess and successfully hiding the corpse. He admits, "I smiled -- for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search -- search well" (Poe 3). The narrator not only murders the old man but also is proud of the fact and his pride spills over into his conversation with the policemen. Poe demonstrates that fear works best when it is confronted with the painful reality. We are never more frightened than when we face the truth of reality. Poe's narrator is a man just like any other man and that is whey we should be afraid. His steady decline is an illustration of man's delicate frame of mind and it should serve as a warning.