Critical Essay

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Critical Essay

Introduction:

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most influential American writer, editor, and critic. Best work of Poe is considered to be his short stories and poetry. He is mainly known as a central figure of romanticism. He is known as the inventor of the detective fiction genre who later contributed a lot in the genre of science fiction. Guilt has been seen as one of the favorite themes of Poe and after having a deep eye at the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, it could be seen that Poe has torched a light on the theme of guilt that the main character feels after killing a person. If this story is being examined from basic level, one could find a continuous conflict. It has been narrated by an unnamed narrator, who is going through a mental conflict after the murder of his housemate. In this story, it could be seen that sometimes a person, became blind with his obsession and forget the difference between evil and good. There are some instincts that indicate, sometimes bad is on its way, but a wrong and insensible action of subject can make the situation worst that would have lasting effects on him.

Discussion:

In this story, there is an unnamed narrator who kills his old housemate and after his murder, it could be seen that the narrator lost his peace of mind because there was an auditory hallucination of the dead heart of the housemate (De Ambrogi, et,al,2019). Critical examination of the story depicts that a person can use all his conscious and non-conscious instincts for protecting himself but cannot draw a line what is ethically right and what is not. Another major aspect that should be inferred from this story is, it is a part of the human psyche that they never realize their mistakes and always try to justify their sins. Regret and guilt could be seen as one of the strongest emotion, and particularly people who go through any mental disorder felt guilt differently than the rest of the people. In this story, Poe is more concerned with instincts as it was seen that the old man who was murdered by the narrator, was having some character issues that indicated his inner evil and the narrator felt that evil.

It is an important fact that murder in this story was because of unstable psychological condition of the narrator. There are two important and exciting things about this story. First is the house where the narrator has killed his housemate and second psychological condition of the narrator. By taking a look at the narrator's mental condition, one after critically analyzing the story, could quickly realize that his house was more like a prison or asylum for him. Another critical thing in this story could be the mind of narrator where all the evil of murder was nurturing (Sheridan,et,al,2018). There was no reason for the narrator to kill his housemate even he loved him, but if critically seen it could be found that there was a kind of fear that narrator felt because of the evil eye of his housemate

By keeping in view the moral teachings, it has been seen that killing someone without any solid reason is not at all justified. If someone has some moral flaws it does not mean, one could take his life, as no one has the right to take others life. When seen critically it could be found that this story of Poe is very close with Shakespeare’s play "Macbeth", because in both pieces of literature, an old man is killed by someone who is driven to feel guilt over his crime by being haunted by the ghost of one being killed beyond the grave. Also, another thing that catches the attention of readers is, in both stories, one who felt guilty of his action was depicted as someone having a mental issue. In Poe's story, the narrator was the victim of psychological issue since the beginning but in "Macbeth," Macbeth became mentally unstable after killing the old man (Duncan).

There is another thing that would be interesting for the readers to know that in both these texts, the murderers were followed by a knocking door. The motiveless crime of the narrator depicts another aspect that the sounds that threatened Poe's narrator, were the sound that existed in his mind only and maybe these sounds were just because of the guilt that narrator felt. In this story, Poe is trying to convey the message to his audience that sometimes, one cannot justify his actions and at such stage, one may become a victim of guilt that could ultimately destroy him, as in the case of the narrator of this story. Though there are a few minor characters in this story but mainly there are just two characters, an old man who has been killed and the narrator who killed his old housemate. Setting of the story is gothic that stresses on the fact that Poe wants the reader to get a feeling of terror and fear.

Conclusion:

A touch of supernatural effects could be felt in this story as the murderer starts hearing a sound that makes him scare and provokes his sanity and unstable mental conditions. It could be seen that this story is being written in a gothic style, but there was no ghost threating the narrator rather it was just hallucination, or it could be said that it was Phantom of the narrator's mind. The narrator was seen getting burrow away with his hallucination. Despite getting over his hallucination, he started getting deep in that, which became a cause of his worst mental health, with which he was struggling since long back. So, it could be concluded that humans should understand the fact that things are not in their control and same happen with the narrator who was having psychological issues and murder dragged him towards the worst stage of his life.

Work Cited:

Sheridan, Joshlin. "The Guilty Fray of Sound in Rope: Hitchcock's Rope as an Auditory Adaptation of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." (2018).c

De Ambrogi, Marco. "The evil eye." The Lancet 393.10166 (2019): e1.