A Psychoanalytical Disembodiment of "TheTell-Tale Heart"

Reality is perception as constructed by the mind. Authors, who are aware of this theory endeavour to exploit it in their desire to create entertaining and convincing work. This is evident in tales of Goth and Mystery wherein the reader's perception as provided through the author's directives defines his or her realism or as more concisely described by Phillip Young in The Earlier Psychologist and Poe, "by conscientiously manipulating some pictures according to the author's directions, the reader can scrutinize the representations to get a clear perception" (442; v.22). Edgar Allan Poe functioning upon this same theory designed his poetry and his short stories analytically with for the purpose of producing- one effect. In "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) Poe synthesizes perception, aesthetic intuition, illusion, and an ironic application of reasoning to create a manipulative psychological murder mystery with an ironic vision, which exposes the reader's declaration of wisdom as the true madness. Furthermore, he manages to express one specific effect above all others- an effect of fear or in more appropriate terminology- panic!

Poe's drive to achieve this effect even at the cost of accuracy assisted him to entwine readers into a daunting, chilling, and ironically laced tale, as is the case with "The Tell-Tale Heart", a chaotic tale, which seemingly makes perfect sense but in reality is itself the greatest mystery of all, despite common disagreements concerning the narration, the setting, and the overall theme.

Poe chose to establish the narration of "The Tell-Tale Heart" through the unnamed murderous character. Therefore, for the purpose of clarity references to narrator or murderer herein will be used interchangeably to indicate the protagonist of the story. Utilizing this manipulative first person narrative Poe opens with the following line; "True!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad (Poe, 1232)" thereby demonstrating that the narrator's statement is a responsive one. In an instant readers are aware that a responsive statement would never pre-empt an exchange of information and given that the reader has made no claim, no assertion, and does not voice an opinion the narrator is given nothing to respond to thus, the reader is alerted to the fact that the narrator is addressing his statements to an unseen minor character. It is this minor and often forgotten character who is privy to the telling of the tale, the reader is an unknown observer.

Likewise, this lack of initiation on the part of the reader is consistent throughout the story and thus, substantiates that any reference by the narrator of you at all times is inferred upon the unheard character and not the reader. Thus, under no circumstances should the pronoun of you ever be defined in regards to the reader as there remains no logical argument to verify this view. Any implication otherwise is solely a method of manipulation deliberately employed by Poe to mislead the reader in an effort to solidify his own motif at the end, the exposure of the reader's own madness.

One of the earliest references to madness is often an overlooked or underestimated line within "The Tell-Tale Heart" wherein the murderer poses the following question; "How then, am I mad" (1232)? This question exposes the ironic context that Poe intended and any erroneous error in the interpretation of such consequentially leads to a misinterpretation of the story's setting. For it is within this question that Poe contextually discloses the reader's own insistence of the murderer's madness to be a demonstration of the reader's madness and thus, illuminates the setting of "The Tell-Tale Heart." In order to justify this explanation of the above one only has to consider it with the additional knowledge that according to Ruffner C. et al Poe considered madness a purely intellectual entanglement" (43). Therefore, to place this observation within the language of Poe: Hearken! for herein, let it be revealed, the true setting of Poe's tale lies not in an ordinary and mundane bedroom but in the construction of the reader's own mind! It is a malleable form submersed in preconceived notions and consumed with morbid fascinations of fear. It is by Poe, strategically interlaced within manipulative and paradoxical phraseology in order to construct a chaotic constituent of psychosis and thus, it is the ideal setting, for a tale of Poe.

Poe utilizes this setting to construct a main point of contingency within "The Tell-Tale Heart" the mental state of the murderer. The frequent references of madness mentioned above most often lead to a pattern of judgment and denial, which subsequently causes readers to conclude that the murderer, is indeed mad and furthermore suffers from schizophrenia or a comparative disease. Although, the murderer admits having suffered from a disease and demonstrates delusional thoughts it can be determined that he is not schizophrenic. His symptoms all conjoin to clarify an individual suffering from a different disease, Panic Disorder.

Symptoms of this disorder are apparent throughout the story. One occurrence is discovered as the murderer observes the reaction of his victim prior to the attack. He describes the victim's groan as one "of mortal terror" (Poe, 1232) explaining that the sound is one, which "arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe" (Poe, 1232). Additionally he goes on to admit to the reader, "I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has swelled up from my own bosom, deepening with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me" (Poe, 1233). Through this dialogue, the murderer reveals that he wakes often in the night at about midnight struggling with terror and continues to detail what he believes the victim's thoughts are. The revelation as a whole sufficiently establishes the murderer's own anxieties, which have caused him to suffer frequent nightly panic attacks.
Poe cleverly conceals two other symptoms of this disorder inside metaphors disallowing the identification of either except through the dissection of the metaphors. Occurring earlier within the "Tell-Tale Heart" than the previous symptom, the murderer informs the reader that he has "heightened senses" (Poe, 1232). He proceeds to deliberately offer additional information such as "I heard all things in heaven and earth. I heard many things in hell" (Poe, 1232) as further evidence. Readers often accept this as further clarification of schizophrenia however they do this because they are not privy to Poe's intended context, which as stated earlier is understood only after the reader identifies the metaphor.

Sounds reflecting terror or pain can be metaphorically explained as sounds of hell while the sounds of birds and dogs can be explained as sounds of heaven and earth thus, when read as a metaphor the descriptive terminology shows no evidence of madness rather it shows the wit of the murderer. Furthermore, the frequent and loud sound the murderer reports as a "low dull quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton" (Poe, 1234:1235) is a result of the increased heart rate commonly experienced by individuals during anxiety attacks and at all times in the story referring to his own heartbeat. Having now extracted the factor of schizophrenia in favor of a more appropriate diagnosis of Anxiety Attacks the question of the murderer's motive arises.

Through the murderer's admittance that he loved the old man and that there was no object, no passion, and no insult, which preceded the murder, Poe enables the most common motives to be disregarded quickly and definitively. Yet, by allowing the murderer's use of an Evil Eye as motive, in an effort to mislead the reader further Poe presents an opportunity for the reader to dissect the symbolism behind this choice of motive. If the narrator really disparaged the eye, because of what it was rather than what it symbolized- he would never have allowed it to remain whole in the midst of the rest of the anatomically dismembered corpse. This oversight on the part of the murderer in his account of the murder presents us with justification of an ulterior motive.

Despite the confusion over the intended meaning of Poe's use of the Evil Eye, it is a valid motive. The Evil Eye is symbolic of jealousy and envy. Jealousy and envy provide common motivation for individuals to hurt those they reportedly love when under the influence of either of these emotions. In regards to the murder, it was not the physical eye of the old man, which truly vexed the murderer neither was it the symbolic Evil Eye of the old man, which vexed the murderer, it was instead the Evil Eye of the murderer himself, which vexed him so greatly. Thus, the Evil Eye is an untrue yet, genius guise to present for motive. The murderer's own jealousy and envy not only provides a clear motive it additionally, explains the insecurity and hostile attitude toward failure and mockery, which in the end provokes him to confess.

Readers most often misperceive the entire ending of "The Tell-Tale Heart" to reveal the delusion of the heartbeat, which supposedly drives the murderer to confess. However, the perceived delusion is as explained earlier the murderers own heartbeat and the provocation for confession is the murderer's own humility. The murderer states:
"They heard!-they suspected!-they knew!-they were making a mockery of my horror!-this I thought and this I think. But any thing was better than this agony! Any thing was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die" (Poe, 1235)!

These focused references to the "hypocritical smiles" (Poe, 1235) and the "mockery of my horror" (Poe, 1235), "the derision" (Poe, 1235), and the "dissemble" (Poe, 1235) more so than the beat of the heart, make it illogical to assume a confession based upon guilt. These references demonstrate the agony of humiliation the narrator perceived. Consequently, with the insult of mockery being too great for the narrator to bear, he retaliates onto the officers with a declaration of "Villains!" (Poe, 1235) and proceeds to admit the deed in an attempt to end his suffrage. As observed by one critic "Imbedded in the tale is the psychological journey of an egocentric who derives pleasure from cruelty" (Pritchard; 144).

Admittedly, the above factor of the murderer as well as the motif of "The Tell- Tale Heart" is imbedded in a fashion similar to the murderer's burial of the disembodied corpse beneath three planks. By imbedding factors such as narration, setting, and tone in an ambiguous manner Poe has caused many readers to infer a state of madness onto the murderer when the perception of madness is actually upon a reader who assumes so much and therefore, misinterprets the most impressive psychological murder mystery. Through the control of reader's perception Poe has pressured many readers to assume that the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart is addressing them directly. Furthermore, he has aesthetics and effect in order to give the reader the illusion of incorrect themes while disregarding the obvious contradictions as presented herein. Thus, Poe has through the ultimate manipulation of Goth and Mystery authoritatively exposed the reader's declaration of wisdom as the true madness.