The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

1
The Tell-Tale Heart byEdgar Allan Poe
2
Facts About Edgar Allan Poe

• Edgar Allan Poe was born to David and Eliza Poe
  on January 19th of 1809. Eliza Poe was an
  actress.
• In 1810, Poe's father abandoned his family and
  shortly after, Poe's mother died of tuberculosis.
  Poe was orphaned to the home of John Allan,
  where he then adopted the name Allan.
• Poe married his 13 year old first cousin,
  Virginia Clemm, on September 22nd of 1835.
  Virginia's early death led to some of his most
  famous works.
• Poe died on October 7th of 1849 and his death
  still remains a mystery. Prior to his death, on
  October 3rd, he was found on the streets in great
  distress.

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Summary of The-Tale Heart

• The Tell-Tale Heart is a story of the perfect
  murder or so the unnamed narrator thought when he
  committed it. The narrator of the story is
  confessing to his murder of an old man, whom he
  was caring for. Throughout the entire story, the
  narrator is terribly worried that people will
  think him mad and tries to dissuade the recipient
  of his tale of the assessment that he is mad.
  The narrator begins his tale by saying why he
  committed the murder. It had not been his
  original plan to commit the murder but he tells
  of how the old man's vulture eye, of which the
  narrator was terrified of, was the reason that he
  did it. He tells of how he was very cautious and
  watched the man for sevem nights and was careful
  not to make any sound. Upon the eighth night,
  though, is when he killed the old man. The
  police come after there had been a call from a
  neighbor regarding them hearing a shriek. The
  narrator is very hospitable and calm and
  convinces the police that there had been no foul
  play. He eventually becomes disturbed and starts
  to hear the beating of a heart. He believes it
  to be the old man's heart still beating and
  finally admits to the police, who he thought were
  mocking his distress with hypocritical smiles,
  and tears up the planks of where he hid the body
  of the old man.
• To read the full story, go to this website
  http//xroads.virginia.edu/hyper/poe/telltale.htm
  l

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Analysis of The Tell-Tale Heart

• In an article, by Magdalen Wing-chi Ki, which
  pertains to The Tell-Tale Heart and other works
  by Edgar Allan Poe, Wing-chi Ki describes how Poe
  uses the Ego-Evil in his stories as well as the
  Superego-Evil. The Ego-Evil consists of the
  elevation of self-love and the Superego-Evil
  consists of fanatical devotion. These play a key
  role in this story because of the narrator
  displaying his own need before that of the
  innocent old man. His need to rid himself of the
  evil eye is what makes it so that he is able to
  commit the murder. Wing-chi Ki also describes
  how Poe's characters are aware of the difference
  between right and wrong but remain oblivious to
  their own sins, just as the narrator does in The
  Tell-Tale Heart. Wing-chi Ki also states that
  Poe's characters do not remain oblivious for long
  though, due to the inquisitive gaze of others,
  which leaves them in hysterics and eventually to
  the confession of their misdeeds. Wing-chi Ki
  also states that the characters' confessions
  often do not lead to their redemption or a
  showing of guilt.

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Key Components Within The Tell-Tale Heart

• The most important component within the story is
  the act of murder. This is most important
  component of the story because without the murder
  there would be no story.
• The next most important component is the
  narrator's madness. Without the narrator's
  madness, there would never have been a murder
  committed. His madness is evident within the
  first paragraph of the story, although he is
  desperate to prove otherwise.
• In addition to the narrator's madness, is his
  paranoia or anxiety, which plays a key role in
  his madness because it heightens his madness.

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Facts About Sigmund Freud

• Sigmund Freud was born on May 6th of 1856 in the
  town of Freiburg but moved to Vienna at age 4.
• He was born to merchant Jacob Freud and Amalia,
  who was his father's third wife.
• Freud was first in his class in every year.
• Freud entered the University of Vienna in 1873
  with the idea of obtaining a degree in law but
  then changed to matriculating in medicine. He
  became so engrossed in the subject that he did
  not acquire his degree until 1881.
• In 1886 Freud married a woman he had fallen in
  love with named Martha Bernays and within 9 years
  of marriage had 6 children with her. His
  youngest child, Anna, became his confidante.
• Freud spent his life's work on the study of
  psycho-analysis.
• Freud died September 23rd of 1939 after he
  requested a lethal dose of morphine from his
  physician.

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Psycho-Analysis

• Sigmund Freud's study of psycho-analysis
  consisted of human behavior and the study of the
  human psychosis. Freud's model of the human
  psyche consists of three parts, which are the id,
  the ego, and the super-ego. The id is the
  unconscious part of the mind. The ego is the
  realistic part of the psyche. The super-ego is
  the conscious part of the mind. Freud's
  conclusions of psycho-analysis were mainly to do
  with the id or the unconscious. Freud believed
  that all feelings and behavior were a reaction to
  what humans experienced through dreams and other
  parts of the unconscious.

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Freud's Views on Anxiety

• Freud used in his lectures, regarding anxiety,
  the word gemeine, which means common in
  German. This is a feasible word because everyone
  experiences some form of anxiety at one point in
  his or her life. Anxiety is more pronounced in
  people who undergo forms of neurosis, or
  distress. Anxiety is often associated with fear
  because it is a reaction to whatever is
  frightening someone.

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Comparing Freud's Views To The Tell-Tale Heart

• Freud's views can be well associated with Poe's
  story, The Tell-Tale Heart, due to the abnormal
  psychosis of the narrator. The narrator's
  psychosis is abnormal due to his madness. The
  narrator suffers from intense anxiety as well.
  His fear of the old man's eye is what caused his
  anxiety and what led to him taking the life of
  the old man. This anxiety became even more
  pronounced when the narrator was being questioned
  by the police. His increasing anxiety led to his
  confession when he believed he heard the beating
  of the old man's heart.

10
Works Cited

• Freud, Sigmund. Introductory Lectures on
  Psycho-Analysis. Trans. James Strachey. New
  York W. W. Norton Company, 1966. Print.
• Gay, Peter. Introduction. By James Strachey.
  1966. New York W. W. Norton Company, 1989.
  ix-xxii. Print.
• Hutchisson, James M. Poe. Mississippi
  University Press of Mississippi, 2005. Print.
• Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. 1843.
• Wing-chi Ki, Magdalen. Ego-Evil and The
  Tell-Tale Heart. Renascence. Fall 2008 25-38.
  Ebscohost. Web. 18 December 2011.