Trust in The Tell Tale Heart Essay

Who can you trust? In the short story The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe this theory proves to be true. The narrator opens the story by telling the reader that he doesnt know why but that he wants to kill the old man that he takes care of. The old man didnt have gold that pleased the narrator it was just something deep down that every time he looked at the old man he wanted to kill him. Maybe was it because of that eye? Yes, the narrator describes the old mans eye as being the eye of a vulture, a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon the narrator, his blood ran cold. So gradually he made up his mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid himself of the eye forever. One dark cold night the man went up to the old mans room and peered upon the old mans eye as he did the anxiety and anger that had been building inside seized him, and he threw open the door he had been peaking through and ran in the room, drug the old man off of the bed and threw the bed on top of him. In doing this he killed the old man, and the reader might think of the man as being mad, until the reader reads what the man does with the old mans body. The man then dismembered the old mans body and then removed three planks from the chamber of the old man. He then puts the pieces of the old man in the floor. Thinking he has committed the perfect crime the man is so delighted that when officers of the police arrived at the mans door asking what the shriek was that a neighbor had heard, the man said that it was one of his own while he was dreaming he had become frightened. The officers would then have left, but the man became to prideful that he had committed the perfect crime he lead the officers to the old mans quarters to sit down and rest upon the very spot the old man was lying under. As they were sitting and talking the man heard a low slow deep beat like that of a large drum, the beat then started getting faster, the man thought this was that of the old mans heart beating, realizing this the man told the police officers everything, and come to find out it was only the mans heart beat, the dead man was dead and his heart was no longer able to beat.

The narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart is a sick twisted figure. He describes himself of not being psychotic, but as doing the right thing. The narrator was a very smart character for hiding the body under the floor. The man would have committed the perfect crime if he would not have become guilty. This does go to show that the man did have some kind of heart and guilt, and wasnt just a deranged psychotic killer. The man did mention to hearing the old mans heart beat, but what he was actually hearing was his own heart beat. The narrator does have a slight hint of paranoia, and some psycho traits.

The narrator gives the reader the emotions, and feelings of saying You Sick Bastard. The narrator gives that feeling to the reader at the beginning of the story but as the reader reads on, the reader realizes that the narrator is only suffering from psychotic paranoia. As the reader realizes this their heart goes out for the poor narrator, but then the emotions rapidly turn back to sick and twisted narrator who chopped up an old man because he had an evil eye. As the reader continues they come to the part where the police knock at the door and the reader feels a hint of apprehension. The wonder to themselves is the police going to find the body or is the narrator going to get away with murder. The reader reads that the police find nothing, but because of pride the man takes the police to the spot where the man was. The reader starts to slowly slide to the edge of their seat, they wonder is he really this stupid and will the police find out. The man then confesses to the police and the reader feels like shouting You Idiot. When the story finishes the reader feels blue and jovial all at the same time. Blue for the poor old man being killed, and jovial for the murderer being caught.

The narrator gives many themes throughout this story. A couple of the themes were who can you trust, murder is not forgotten, and a guilty conscience doesnt lie. The first theme is who can you trust refers to the old man. The old man did not realize he could not trust his caretaker the narrator. The second theme is murder is not forgotten. No matter how hard you run away or try to forget something that you are guilty for you wont forget it. The third theme a guilty conscience does not lie. This proves to be one of the key themes in the destruction of the narrator. The narrators guilt became so heightened that he actually started hallucinating and hearing things. These things would be what he thought to be the old mans heart beat actually turned out to be his own. It was growing faster because of the paranoia and fear of being caught.

The Tell-Tale heart was a story that most would say as a sick and twisted story. A story that had no purpose, but this story shows a lot of purpose actually. The purpose of showing that you cannot get away with a negative action without getting caught. In this case the narrator was telling on his self. The narrator may have been a deranged twisted murderer but the author takes this character and shows good morals at the end. This story shows that a guilty conscience doesnt lie, and you cant trust everyone you meet.