The Tone “The Tell-Tale Heart”: Analyzing the Calculated Killer

Introduction

Many murderers kill on purpose. Even so, the jury will acquit people who commit murder if they provide reasonable evidence that they kill out of insanity. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator tells a creepy story about how he (or she) murders an old man only because he does not like his creepy eye. The narrator describes the fury he feels as he loudly murders the old man with a bed, cutting off his head, arms, and legs afterward.

At the end of the story, he hears a disturbing heartbeat under the floor he is standing on as the police come to investigate. The events, combined with the psychological nature of the story, can make the reader feel as though the narrator is insane. However, the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is actually a calculated killer because he repeatedly tells the reader he is not insane, tries to be discreet, and uses deceit to achieve his goals.

Body

Tone as a Reflection of Calculated Intent

Several times in the story, the narrator affirms to the reader that an insane person can not perform the actions that he performs in the story. Reasoning that an insane person would kill on impulse, the narrator shows the reader how he plans the entire murder. As the narrator remarks, “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!” (Poe 414). The narrator regularly uses statements like this from the beginning of the plot to after the murder to show that he is thinking consciously while killing the old man. He assures the reader that he remains calm, quiet, and clever throughout the entire attempt, in contrast to insane people who react solely to emotional outbursts. Not until the very end of the story, when he hears the heartbeat under the floor in which he buried the old man, does the narrator feel any real insanity. By repeatedly telling the reader that he is not insane but that he is conscious of his plot to kill the old man, he assures the reader that he is a calculated killer.

Manipulation and Deception: Masking Motives

Throughout the entire murder attempt, the narrator tries to be as secretive as possible. He waits eight days before he kills the man; he opens the door as slowly as possible, he attempts the murder at midnight, and he tries as much as possible to avoid waking the old man up. Even after he kills the old man, the narrator tries to provoke as little outburst as possible. As the narrator recalls, “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body … I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye—not even his—could have detected anything wrong” (Poe 417). For almost the entire story, the narrator is patient, even pointing out that “[a] watch’s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine” (Poe 415) on the night that he killed the old man. Those who think that the narrator is insane point out the exceptions, such as the time of the actual murder, when the narrator mentions that his fury led him to open the lantern and kill the old man. Even so, the narrator prioritizes silence over haste. An insane person, he believes, would try to kill as quickly as possible and run as quickly as possible without any planning. The narrator’s slow, secretive, well-planned attempt to murder the old man shows that he is a calculated killer and not a madman.

Like many people who commit unethical deeds, the narrator uses deceit and manipulation to achieve his own ends. The narrator does not have many social interactions with others, but when he does, he always tries to trick the other person into believing his lies. As the narrator retells, “The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country” (Poe 417). Anyone who reads the story should know that this statement is not true because the shriek comes from the old man, who the narrator kills. Nevertheless, the narrator tells this lie to the police about the murder, implying that he kills the old man on purpose. He even places chairs on the boards under which the old man is buried, giving the police the impression that no one was murdered. Those who think the narrator is insane point out that the narrator loved the old man, but this is the other time the narrator attempts to manipulate people’s emotions to his own ends, for he says, “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him” (Poe 414). Considering that this is the week that the narrator plans to kill the old man, he is deceiving the old man into thinking that he will do no harm by the day while he plots to kill him by night. The narrator clearly shows how he uses deception tactics to aid in his killing, tactics that are used by calculated killers and not by people who experience bouts of insanity.

Conclusion

By assuring the reader that he is not insane, using secretive tactics throughout the murder, and manipulating others to believe him, the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” shows that he does not kill the old man out of insanity, but that he does it on purpose. The narrator repeatedly draws contrasts between himself and an insane person by assuring the reader that he is not insane. In addition, the narrator’s murder attempt shows that he is slow, clever, and deliberate, the opposite of insanity. The narrator also manipulates others and tells lies to achieve his goals, like many criminals. Thus, “The Tell-Tale Heart” emphasizes the importance of police and witnesses because a calculated killer can lie about insanity in order to escape judgment.

Works Cited

1. Poe, Edgar Allan. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition. 2008. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25525

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