"The Tell Tale Heart"

Imagine the perfect crime, nothing is out of place, no sign of a struggle, and not a single scrap of forensic evidence. Your criminal is seemingly brilliant and very sane to have perfectly executed such a crime. This is very much the case in “The Tell Tale Heart”, by Edgar Allen Poe, as the narrator goes about telling his epic testimony. The absolute reality and authenticity that Poe added, along with the complexity and the sanity struggle of the narrator truly make the tragic mode come alive.

To fully understand Poe’s tragedy, “The Tell Tale Heart”, you must carefully examine the plot line in correlation to the tragic mode of literature. A conflicted world for our lovely narrator is the clear starting point of this tragedy, as he was constantly being haunted by the “vulture eye” of the old man, and when convinces himself to take very drastic action to save his sanity. Our narrator has made a decision that he will undoubtedly regret in his near future as his rise to power comes while he carefully takes the life of the old man and dismembers the remains. At this point, you are most certainly thinking that our narrator is most definitely mad, but wait there is more to our narrator’s epic tale.

While his ethics and performance may bring you to question the sanity of the narrator, his great precision and confidence may bring you some second thoughts. As this tragic story continues, you will see our extremely confidant narrator graciously take in some police detectives and sit them right above the dismembered remains under the floor as his confidence overwhelms him as his rise to power comes to its sticky end as the tragic flaw appears through his gulity conscience. As the detectives sit there his heart starts to beat louder and louder; he however believes it to be that of the old man, he starts to have a tantrum and screams out confessing to all of his horrible crime, which is his tragic fall and death symbolism.

The tragic mode is perfectly captured from the astounding complexity and detail of both the narrator and plot line created by Poe. Many crimes are committed daily, some are committed by those who are very sane, others by those who have no sanity what so ever; “The Tell Tale Heart” is one that can go either way. So I ask you, was his confession subject of guilt or subject of insanity?