“The Tell-Tale Heart”. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of insanity and murder…. or is it? Is the narrator of the story really sane or has he gone mad? Did he really kill the old man or was he just hallucinating? Stay tuned for the answer…..
And we’re back. According to my thinking, the narrator (let’s call him Timmy) is completely, utterly, stark raving mad. I mean, just bonkers. Daft, as the Brits would say. First off, he starts by defending his sanity. That’s questionable but not something that would alone condemn him as crazy. Then, he tells us why he wanted to kill the old man (Rico!). It’s not like Rico ever did anything wrong to the narrator. “He had never given me insult,” says Timmy. But THAT EYE. That darn orb of non-sight that occupies the old man’s facial gap (that’s a really weird sentence, I know). How many people do you know that plan a murder because they don’t like someone’s eye? Cuckoo….
So the speaker goes about his murdering bidness and gets all cozy with the old man. But at night, when the rats scurry, and the bugs crawl, and security guards sleep on the job, Timmy carefully opens the door and shines a light on THE EYE. Unfortunately for him (or fortunately for Rico as it were), THE EYE is closed. Therefore he has no incentive the kill him.
But one night, Timmy goes into Rico’s room, and Rico awakens! Timmy tried to be stealthy and wait for Rico to fall asleep again but he doesn’t. So Timmy shines a sliver of light at the man. THE EYE!!!!! That sight sets him off. This is where my next point comes in. If Timmy were sane, he would have had a continual longing to kill the old man. Not a stuttering, iffy, “eh, I’ll do it tomorrow” sort of desire. Alas, insanity. So then he kills Rico, el loco.
When the police appear, Timmy is ecstatic. Hey, he did a great job of hiding the body. Why shouldn’t he be proud of himself? But that heart. It beats….and beats…louder…..LOUDER! And it’s all in his head. That’s what I believe. Either Timmy is imagining the beating of Rico’s heart or he’s just hearing his own heart. I believe that his ranting is all in his head, too. No policemen would just sit there chatting while a man goes loony. Then Timmy’s barely-existent hold on self control snaps and he pulls up the floor boards, revealing the remains of Rico. I doubt this was out of guilt though. It was just to stop the persistent imaginary beating of Rico’s corazon.
