“The Tell – Tale Heart” short story is a story that is emotional and highly engaging with the readers. It momentarily lifts the reader from the realistic world and takes them to a world full of horror as described by Amir (2018). As further discussed by Amir (2018), the story was written to provide as a literary piece of art to demonstrate paranoia and mental deterioration. From the story, the theme of guilt takes center stage and the author has repeated it severally to emphasize the consequences of taking matters into one’s hands. The author tries to convince the readers that the protagonist is highly guilty for committing murder against an old man. The main character is internally torn apart by the outcome of his actions and is experiencing severe internal conflict. He writes, “Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if exited to fury by the observations of the men…but the noise steadily increased. Oh God! What could I do?” (Poe and Buchta, 2002). Despite being psychotic, the protagonist is very remorseful. In an internal monologue, the protagonist thinks, “I loved the old man. He never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye!” (Poe and Buchta, 2002). The story shows that despite one’s mental status, committing murder is a serious end that leads to untold mental suffering which manifests through guilt. As a result, the protagonist is very enraged and this is shown by how the narrator in the story uses different methods to bring it out, for instance, repetition. The narrator says, “It grew louder—louder—louder!” (Poe and Buchta, 2002) in reference to the beating of the old man’s heart. The protagonist can only hear the heartbeat of the dead old man because he is guilty and is wishing that he could reverse the outcome of the situation. Guilt is a central theme in the story and it has been brought out in the story in different circumstances.
References
Amir, S. (2018). Stylistic Analysis of the Short Story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. Angloamericanae Journal , 3 (1), 18-25.
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Poe, E. A., & Buchta, W. (2002). The tell-tale heart . Wolfgang Buchta.
