Blog #6:

Question 1:

In the story by Edgar Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the repression the narrator felt towards the old man that eventually leads him to admitting his guilt to the officers because he wanted free himself of the old man’s heart that he heard beating even after he killed him and the dismembered the body. The events that led up to undeniable guilt were very carefully laid out. It took him seven nights to reach the point to enter the old man’s room without disturbing him. He stated, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees – very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.” This part makes it very clear that the intentions to kill the old man were not of the actions by the old man but of his “vulture-like pale blue eye.” The steps that were so cautiously laid out by him and told in this story, were to prove to the reader (or maybe himself) that he was not a “madman,” it was the “eye” of the old man that caused him to kill him.
After he had carefully planned for seven nights at exactly midnight, the eighth day is when he executed his plan to finally get rid of the “pale-blue eye”. He did the same thing that he had done the previous seven nights: first he made it so that he was “never so kinder to the old man” during the seven days (my guess is that the old man would not suspect anything-especially while he slept), next, he ever so cautiously entered the old man’s room (like he had done before) by turning the latch on his door and opening it, after he had opened the door enough for his head (which took him an hour), he then put in a dark lantern and then stayed in his room until a ray of sunshine casted on the “eye.” On this eighth night, he stated that he had never felt his sagacity more and that he had never been so ready to end the life of the old man. On the eighth night while in the old man’s room, his the thumb slipped on the tin fastening of the lantern and caused the old man to wake; but, he did not move a single muscle and stayed in his room for another hour without the old man knowing he was there. He did not hear the old man lay back down, instead he knew that he was watching and listening in the dark of his room (just as he did the past seven nights) “hearkening to the death watches in the wall.” After he could not wait any longer, he opened up the lantern just enough for the “eye” to be visible; which caused him to become furious. After he goes into detail about how he can feel the eye in the “very marrow of in my bones”, he explains to the reader that, “what you mistake for madness is but overacuteness of the senses?” In my opinion, he is stating that he is mad. He makes a paradoxical statement a few times in which I still do not understand what it means, “I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.” I do not understand the relevance to this statement, other than giving the reader an image of what he can hear.
After he became furious after seeing the “eye,” his blood and heart began to pound in his body and as the pounding became increasingly louder, he then killed the old man; he looked backed on the him with a “gaily smile.” To be sure that he was dead, he placed his hand on the old man’s chest to see if his heart was still beating – it was not. He then dismembered the member, cutting off the head, the arms, and then his legs. It was now 4 o’clock, with the dismembered body carefully lying under the planks in the old man’s bedroom. He was quite proud of his ability of making certain that there was no traceable amount of blood or anything out of place to suggest of what he had just done.
But it was his guilt that ultimately led to his admission. When the officers came to his house after being told by a neighbor that they heard a shriek, he “bade the gentlemen welcome.” He went as far as setting up seating in the old man’s room and he, himself, sat on top of the very spot he had laid the dismembered body. He kept hearing a noise while speaking to the officers, and as it became increasingly louder, so did his worry that maybe the old man was not dead and that he was hearing his heart beat louder and louder. Finally he could not stand it any longer and with the last line of the story he yells, “Villains, dissemble no more! I admit the deed! – tear up the planks! – here, here! – it is the beating of his hideous heart!”

Question 4:

Critical Article “The Tell-Tale Heart”:
After reading this article, I must say that I took a completely different approach to the interpretation of this story. Looking back on his life and all the hardships he endured, I understood this story as to be about the significant relationship between his wife’s father and himself. Poe’s father-in-law did not approve of the marriage, much less of Poe as a person. Their battle continued even after the death of Poe’s wife; which she had played a major role in a lot of Poe’s literature. The way I interpreted the story was that the old man was in reference to the father-in-law and the “eye” that made the narrator’s blood run cold was the relationship they had. Poe loved his wife and therefore he loved her father; however, because he did not like Poe (obviously this made Poe furious), he used a metaphor of the “eye” in place for how this made Poe feel: I believe that this made Poe feel like a failure to his wife because he was so hated by her parents.
I completely disagree with the sexual content of the story as the lecture suggested. For example: “Although Poe remains covert in any presentation of sexual analogy, “the narrator begins [the tale] with language of penetration” (Dayan 225). He speaks of the murder as a “conceived” idea that “entered” his brain (Poe 303). This sexually charged language continues as the narrator describes the ritual that preceded the murders: “And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head [ ] I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in!” (303). In addition to the language, the setting of the ritual and murder, a bedroom, only furthers the notion that this is a psychosexual tale. Finally, the narrator confesses, “I loved the old man” (303). Interestingly, a dichotomy is created between the narrator’s love for and his desire to kill the old man.”
This entry suggests that the relationship between the old man and the narrator were somewhat sexually involved. I strongly disagree because of the lack of evidence that disproves that the narrator (which in most of his literature, he is the narrator), is indeed a homosexual. I honestly believe that Poe had some sort of mental defect but he was in the right to feel such distaste towards his wife’s father. I believe that it was an obsession that he had towards wanting to inflict pain, but in a sadomasochism way. This notion that this story is “sexually charged” is a farfetched idea.
I do not agree with the fact that this man was in any way bipolar. “Indeed, the narrator exists as a bipolar being, divided by his love for and desire to kill the same man” In the mind of the narrator, he exhibits the difference between the old man and the “eye,” which in his has a completely different set a feelings for each. Bipolar is a disease that cannot be controlled; whereas in this story the narrator shows complete control during the seven days and even in the eighth when he kills the old man. The fact that he shows remorse/guilt at the end and gives himself up, shows that the love he had for old man still existed as well as he is still a “human” who can feel such remorse/guilt.
“As the criminal sits and answers the officers’ question “cheerily,” pleasure fades, and he begins to talk “more freely to get rid of the feeling” (306). He becomes convinced that officers who “chatted pleasantly, and smiled” (306) were “making a mocker of [his] horror” (306). Fittingly, he views the officers as sadists taking pleasure in his pain,” again I disagree with this thought. I do not believe that the notion the narrator feels is pleasure, I believe that is a release of stress and hatred that he had for the “eye” of the old man. As well as when the officers are “making a mockery of him,” and know what he has done, I believe this to be a human emotion that he is expressing –guilt. Consequently, I do not believe the narrator to be a masochist much less a sadomasochist. I did not analyze this story to have any such sexual content; in fact I believe this to be a story of Poe writing a scenario of what he would have liked to have done with his wife’s parents’ feelings toward him.