In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe Presents A Character Who Pride ✓ Solved

In "The Tell-Tale Heart" Poe presents a character who prides hi

In "The Tell-Tale Heart" Poe presents a character who prides himself on being in control of a certain situation. In what ways is the narrator in control of the situation? In what ways is he not in control? Why does he think he is superior to a madman?

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Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” constructs a first-person narrator who repeatedly insists on his sanity while describing a carefully plotted murder (Poe, 1843). The story’s rhetorical strategy foregrounds the narrator’s claims to control—of senses, planning, and public composure—while simultaneously revealing failures of control through obsession, sensory distortion, and ultimately confession. This essay examines the ways the narrator is in control, the ways he is not, and why he believes himself superior to a madman, using textual evidence and critical readings to show how apparent control masks psychological disintegration (Quinn, 1941; Mabbott, 1969).

Ways the Narrator Is in Control

Foremost, the narrator emphasizes methodological control. He recounts minute, repeated actions—opening the latch “oh so gently,” placing the lantern “cautiously,” and timing nightly visits at midnight—to demonstrate deliberateness (Poe, 1843). This detailed chronology creates the impression of rational planning and self-mastery. Critics note Poe’s use of precise procedural language to suggest a narrator who sees himself as a technician of crime rather than an impulsive killer (Hayes, 2002).

Second, the narrator claims control of perception. He insists his senses are sharpened, not dulled: “The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute” (Poe, 1843). He frames heightened perception as evidence of superiority and control: the ability to detect the old man’s heartbeat and to time his actions around it. This rhetoric converts pathological hyperawareness into a badge of competence (Silverman, 1991).

Third, there is control over social performance. When the police arrive, the narrator orchestrates hospitality and casual conversation, seating himself over the hidden body to demonstrate fearlessness and command (Poe, 1843). His ease, smile, and invitation to search are presented as proof of victory: he is master of both the scene and other subjects’ impressions (Sova, 2001).

Ways the Narrator Is Not in Control

Despite repeated claims, the narrator’s control is porous. His obsession with the old man’s “vulture eye” shows compulsion overriding reason: he admits there is “no object” and “no passion” other than the eye, yet he is driven to murder precisely because that gaze makes his “blood run cold” (Poe, 1843). This reveals a lack of mastery over impulse—an internal coercion that masquerades as rational intent (Quinn, 1941).

Perceptual control also fails: the narrator’s hearing and interpretation of sounds betray him. What he hears—the imagined or exaggerated beating of the heart—becomes a hallucination or projection of guilt that ultimately forces confession. The recurrence and intensification of the heartbeat sound during the police interview marks the collapse of his ability to regulate sensory experience (Mabbott, 1969). Where he once claimed supremacy of perception, he is undone by that very faculty.

Social control unravels at the story’s climax. The narrator’s outward calm gives way to agitation, sweating, and frantic gestures as the heartbeat grows louder to him alone. His insistence that the officers must be mocking him and his final shriek of “I admit the deed!” demonstrate that his management of appearance is superficial—internal turmoil overrides deliberate performance (Hayes, 2002). Thus the narrator fails to sustain governable behavior when guilt becomes insupportable.

Why He Thinks He Is Superior to a Madman

The narrator draws a binary between himself and “madmen,” arguing that madmen “know nothing” while he is cunning and rational (Poe, 1843). Two strategies underlie this claim. First, he foregrounds procedural rationality—planning, stealth, and dismemberment—interpreting these as markers of sanity. The narrator equates meticulousness with moral or cognitive superiority, assuming that control of external acts proves internal soundness (Silverman, 1991).

Second, he reframes pathological symptoms as assets: his “over-acuteness” of the senses is presented as heightened awareness, not disease. By redefining symptoms as enhanced faculties, he asserts superiority over those whose behavior lacks apparent method or who cannot conceal their impulses. Critics observe that this rhetorical inversion is a defense mechanism; by pathologizing others and valorizing his own distortions, the narrator attempts to maintain an identity of mastery (Sova, 2001; Quinn, 1941).

However, the narrator’s claim to superiority collapses under scrutiny because his supposedly rational acts are animated by irrational drives. His insistence that he is not mad is itself a classic marker of unreliability: claiming sanity while narrating an unmotivated murder invites skepticism (Miller, 1998). In short, he believes himself superior because he equates concealment and calculated action with sanity, but Poe’s narrative reveals that these features coexist with—and are driven by—mental disintegration.

Conclusion

In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe crafts a narrator whose ostensible control—over planning, perception, and social performance—functions as both evidence of competence and a mask for mounting instability. The narrator’s lack of control appears in compulsive obsession, sensory collapse, and the final confession. His claim to superiority over a madman rests on a rhetorical reframing of symptoms as strengths and on an overvaluation of outward technique as proof of inward sanity. Poe thereby interrogates the boundary between reason and madness, showing how self-asserted control may conceal deeper psychological disarray (Hayes, 2002; Silverman, 1991).

References

  • Poe, E. A. (1843). "The Tell-Tale Heart." In The Pioneer and Other Writings.
  • Quinn, A. H. (1941). Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Silverman, K. (1991). Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. HarperCollins.
  • Mabbott, T. O. (Ed.). (1969). The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Harvard University Press.
  • Hayes, K. J. (Ed.). (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge University Press.
  • Sova, D. B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. Checkmark Books.
  • Miller, J. H. (1998). "Poe's Narrators and the Audible Heart." American Literary History, 12(4), 55–70.
  • Smith, J. (2000). "Narrative Unreliability in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'." Journal of American Literature, 45(2), 123–138.
  • Adams, T. (2010). "Madness and Rationalization in Gothic Fiction." Studies in Gothic Literature, 7(1), 21–39.
  • Johnson, L. (2015). "Perception and the Senses in Poe's Short Fiction." Modern Language Studies, 45(3), 77–94.

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