How Effective Is Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart as a Gothic Horror Essay

How effective is Edgar Allan Poes The Tell Tale Heart as a gothic repulsive force? The short figment The Tell Tale Heart was written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843. It is written in first person in the past tense. The story opens in the middle of what looks to be a dialogue between the narrator and his audience. We learn that the narrator looks after an aged(prenominal) part with a pale coloured bosom he describes it as creation same that of a vulture. We are told that the eye disturbs the narrator, for this reason the narrator decides to tax return the old military mans life.During the seven days before the murder, the speaker is highly harming to his victim in the day time. However, in the night he would creep into the old mans room awaiting the appearance of the Evil eye. On the eighth night the old man wakes up, the eye causes the narrator to suddenly lash out and annihilate the old man. He dismembers the corpse and stores it under the floor boards. The police visit h is house due to a shriek heard by a neighbour. At first he is calm and sure of himself, however becomes increasingly nervous and seems to go insane.The narrator admits his crime to the police even though they have no apparent suspicions. The dark and mysterious setting of Poes story is typical of a gothic horror. We learn from early on that the narrator is actually the villain. He speaks directly to the designateer, creating a personal bond which we do not share with any other character. We know very little roughly the victim which prevents us from empathising with him later on in the story. The narrator is a very complex character, he seems to have a distorted overhear of the world around him and we copy him to be insane.Madness is a popular theme of gothic horror and one of the reasons the story is so effective is because of the erratic way in which it is told. whatever events of the tale seem to be unrealistic and this adds mystery to the horror. The main event of the tale , the murder, is likewise common in the gothic horror genre. Because of these links to a ordinary tale of gothic horror, I believe Edgar Allan Poes The Tell Tale Heart is very effective. Within the first paragraph I get the view that the speaker is mad and disturbed. He accuses the audience of thinking he is mad by saying why will you say that I am mad? This causes us to question his sanity because he has no reason to say this.Now that the theme of madness is fresh in our heads, as we continue to read the story the idea that the narrator is mad comes to mind easily. I get the word-painting that he is insecure and possibly knows he is insane because hes trying to persuade us otherwise. The narrator speaks at a very fast pace using disjointed sentences such as, True -nervous-very, very horribly nervous The vast amount of punctuation makes this sentence choppy and slow to read causing you to trip over what he is saying.This manner of dialogue reflects his sore personality. Also, the narrators distorted view of things reinforces the horror genre. We assume that he has a distorted view because he expresses his love for the old man yet soon explains his wishes to take his life. There is a paradox in this situation and shows us how scrambled his thoughts are. The idea of the narrator not thinking straight and being irrational excites the audience. It also adds to the effectiveness of the gothic horror. When I first read The Tell Tale Heart I felt eager to find out the narrators later actions.This backs up my earlier idea of both the story and narrator being extremely effective as a gothic horror. When the speaker tells us he is going to take the old mans life our opinion of him changes. We begin to realise that he could be evil and cold tited. He makes it clear that the old man has never wronged him, this is impertinent because this would make the only reason for murder the mans diseased eye. This seems extremely unnecessary and bestial this behaviour has a great link with gothic horror. Also, it is frightening to think that such a defect could motivate a murder.Suspense is built when the narrator rehearses the actions that lead up to the murder for seven nights. This bring ups that he is incredibly meticulous. He is a perfectionist and is repeating his intended actions to ensure all runs smoothly. We could also get the impression that he is fearful of tearing the old man. I think that he uses the fact that the eye isnt open as an excuse not to kill the old man, he says but I found the eye always to be closed and so it was impossible to do the work. This in fact, is a lie. It would have been much simpler to murder the old man whilst he was sleeping.When the narrator creeps into his room at night he is very slow and quiet. This ensures that he doesnt see the eye and therefore doesnt get enraged. This situation is extremely disturbing, it seems warped that the narrator would have such ruthless ideas but hence be unable to follow them through. The speaker proudly tells us that in the day he treats the old man with courtesy and respect. In a way, this tells me that he is not a completely evil character merely controlled by his impulses. On the other hand it could be perceived as the narrator being a cracking actor and sly.By being devious and two faced about the situation our opinion of the character changes. This is creepy because he is capricious we are never quite sure when things are going to pass off. On the eighth night, the narrator was more than usually cautious when entering the old mans room. This immediately raises our suspicions and we begin to question why he has done this. It suggests that for some reason the narrator was apprehensive on that particular night. In the end, his over-cautiousness was his ruination because he accidently wakes the old man.This is disturbing because now the man is awake we assume that the murder will now take place. In the immediate build up to the murder the narrator describes in great depth what the old man is thinking. This implies to me that the speaker has experienced similar situations and hatful associate with the old man. It also could suggest that the narrators senses have been sharpened, as he tells us in the first paragraph the disease had sharpened my senses. It gives us the idea that the narrator can tell what the old man is thinking.Hints of mind reading enhance the effect of this gothic horror because they are supernatural. Even though the old man wakes up, the evil in the building gives the narrator confidence and adds to the effectiveness of the gothic horror. Darkness is often directly linked with evil and also the idea that anything can happen definitely adds to the tension and horror. Also, the possibility that if the old man hadnt woken up, the cycle of the narrator watching the man sleep could have carried on forever is extremely creepy. The fact that we feel for the murderer more than the victim in this story is very str ange.We would expect to pity the old man because we are told he is kind and has never wronged the narrator. The fact he has a strange eye cannot be helped and is through no fault of his own. Although the reader is obviously shocked by what happens to the old man, there is no personal relationship between him and the reader because we know very little about him. I think that Edgar Allen Poe has done this on map so that we are more attached to the murderer, which is what makes this story particularly unusual. Moments before the narrator kills the old man, he claims to hear his punk irritateing.It is impossible to hear mortal elses heart beat with human hearing so this is an extremely weird claim. A possible explanation for this is that the narrator is hearing his own heart due to nervousness. At the start of the story the narrator says that his hearing is extremely acute due to the disease. The fact that he uses the word disease suggests that this scanty hearing is a burden to hi m. This is true because he probably doesnt want to hear the old mans impulse. The motif of the heart beat is key to the story because, as shown by the title, it eventually is the undoing of the murderer.The imagery is also very scary and builds a great tension because we imagine the drum of the heart in our heads. Eventually the speaker is driven to action by fear and kills the old man. This brutal murder is key to the story being classed as a gothic horror. We realise that he cares if anyone finds out about his deed and begin to understand that he is not genuinely insane otherwise he wouldnt have a perspective of people finding out and being prosecuted. His mind is hard to analyse because he is clever and obviously knows what he is doing. In a way this is more horrific that him being insane because it shows deep evil.Even though we can tell that the murderer is intelligent, the way he kills the old man is extremely clumsy. Suffocating him with a heavy bed? Surely there are many le ss awkward, quieter ways in which he could have killed him? The idea that even an everyday item such as a bed can be used a murder instrument is extremely creepy. His method suggests that even though he is meticulous, he didnt think enough about actually killing the old man. The narrators immediate response to the murder was that of pleasure this is disturbing. As soon as the deed was done he smiled gaily.Also, the first thing he says is that his eye would trouble me no more its like he is relieved. Normally I would be surprised by this guilt free response but by now it is unsurprising. We are familiar with the narrators lack of feeling and conscience. It is questionable why the narrator dismembers the old mans body. It is strange because as far as we know the narrator only has a problem with his eye. It could have been an act of precaution, even though this is unnecessary. perhaps the narrator axiom it as a challenge? If this is true the idea of the narrator almost playing a gam e adds to the horror of the tale.We can tell that the narrator never saw the old man as a person, more of an object. Another possible reason could be that, because the narrator is so fastidious, he wanted everything to be neat and compact. This is very risky though because you would assume it would be a messy job. The narrator says there was no mess could this once again be a distorted view of things? As the narrator goes about his gruesome task (dismembering the body) his tone of voice is very methodical and boastful. This suggests he is calm about the gory situation which is horrible.He does not elaborate the gore and we get the impression he is being very clean. We also get the impression that he is proud of his actions and the fact he has caught all the blood and prevented any possible mess. His tone has an effect on the reader it dumbs down how disgusting his act is. He achieves this by not making a big deal of the details. The narrators initial response to the arrival of the p olicemen is fearless and vaguely smug. This creates an uneasy predilection because we wonder if he will be found out. He bade(s) the gentlemen welcome as if nothing is wrong.He is so confident he sits right above the spot where the old man is buried. This seems to be unnecessarily arrogant, which in the end is his own undoing. His attitude changes when the officers hang around for a long time the narrator begins to feel they are mocking him. A lot of tension builds here because we can sense that something important is going to happen through the frantic situation. tightness is built up when the narrator begins to hear the heart beat again and believes the policemen can hear it too. This is physically impossible because the old man is definitely dead.Maybe its the murderers guilty conscience finally showing through He starts pacing back and forth with heavy strides but the heartbeat doesnt stop. The tension continues to build as he raves and swears. He swung the chair and grated i t upon the boards. This is extremely horrific and it is even stranger that the policeman dont seem to pay any attention. I think that his ravings may have been in his head but its hard to understand because of his distorted frantic view of everything. These hints of insanity constantly link back to the effectiveness of this gothic horror.I believe that this is a brilliant short story and I especially like the ending. It is unpredictable and exciting not all of your questions are answered in the story and this makes your carry on thinking after youve finished reading. I wonder what happened to the murderer, and the heart beating still puzzles me. In conclusion, I believe that The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe is an excellent gothic horror. It contains many key features of a good horror, the biggest being the narrator/murderer who is the mean part of the story. Also, the main event, the murder, definitely is pivatel to the gothic horror genre.