The Tell Tale Heart

“THE TELL TALE HEART”-EDGAR ALLAN POE

I have read " the tell tale heart" many times and I feel the narrator in this story is a special person. Inside him, it seems to exist two persons. The first a normal person and the second is a wise, cunning and wicked one. And I think it is very reasonable to explain each detail in this story.

At the beginning of the story, the narrator said that " I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult". I think that this is the thought of the first person. He is a normal one. He had a normal life like others. He loved his life as well as his neighbors because of the simple reasons. And this person himself prevented the second one from carrying out the guilty that killed the old man. The clearest evidence is throughout seven nights, the murderer did not kill the old man just because " I found the eye always closed". Yes, this is the reason that the first one used to prevent the second one's action and protect the old man who he loved. Maybe inside him the first person said to the other one " the things you hate is his eye, now it is closed and you have no reason to kill him, stop it right now". Upon the eighth night, the role of the first person is not clear, he seemed to be pulled out the body by the second one. And we meet the first person one more time at the end of the story with the detail “ the heart-beating”. In my opinion, it is not the old man’s heart-beating, on the other hand, it is the narrator’s heart- beating. That sound made the second one panic-stricken . The first one not only fought against the second one strongly but also made him confess his guilty “I felt that I must cream or die….. dissemble no more! I admit the deed!...”It is the best solution that the first person could do and had to do although it maybe is not useful for himself because 2 persons existed inside one body. And it is a meaningful ending for this story. The first person finished his role excellently. He loved the man and protected him. When he could not protect him any more, he fought against the murderer strongly to reclaim the justice for the old man who he loved although he had to give up himself.

Besides the nice person, the wise, cunning and wicked one appeared very clearly in the whole story. I want to insist that he was not a mad man, he is a wise, cunning and wicked man. He hided behind the first person and maybe he thought that no one could find out him. He might have gone on hiding unless there had been the old man’s eye. Actually, after meeting and looked at the old man’s eye, he began to feel uncomfortable.