Analysis of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe

     The "Tell-Tale Heart" is a fantastic yet haunting story about a seemingly insane man (though, who says it is a man?). It concerns his ambitions to kill an old man to rid himself of being haunted by the man's "evil eye". Once the deed is done and policemen come to investigate the crime, he is haunted by a noise that sounds like the beating of the old man's heart. The specific line used is "a sound much like a watch makes when enveloped in cotton". The noise becomes so unbearable that he eventually turns himself in to rid himself of the anxiety attack that he is clearly experiencing.
     The narrator, throughout the story, assures the reader of his being sane, which leads the reader to suspect his actual insanity, which is seconded by the deed he decides to go through with committing. Every time the narrator tries to do something, he does so with such precision, as if one false move would result in utter catastrophe. The odd thing is that he makes a mistake when spying on the old man as he sleeps on the eighth night, which could foreshadow (yes, Mr. Scotese, I'm using the word foreshadow, in case you are reading this...anyways...where was I? Ah, yes.) his ultimate arrest.
     The old man's evil eye could represent many things. It could be that it was something that had haunted the narrator since childhood, depending on how long he had been living with the old man. The ultimate thing that comes into question is when did the old man's "evil eye" start to bother the narrator? This can only be inferred, unless one would like to make assumptions based on Edgar Allan Poe's life before the writing of "The Tell-Tale Heart".
     Ultimately, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a story that questions a killer's motivations for committing a crime. However, it adds the first-person aspect, which allows the reader to experience the frantic thoughts he or she is experiencing all this time. However, is there a political aspect to this story? The story was written in 1843, the year in which the American people attempted to impeach President Tyler. This attempt of course did not succeed. Perhaps Poe is making an analogy, in that the killer's attempt to silence the heart of the old man failed, so did the American people's attempt to silence the authority of President Tyler. It is a possibility! Think about it!
A Presto,
Simon