English Professor Explains Edgar Allan Poe's Gothic Tale, "The Tell-Tale Heart" PSYCHOANALYSIS

[@SamanthaMendes-v4p]

When the narrator shares his mental condition and mindset leading to his sharp nervousness, as an audience we can recognize his insanity. I like how you mentioned that as he hopes to convince us of his sanity we can understand just how far from sane he is. The wise perceptions he took to conceal the body shows his commitment he has to doing this horrible deed. Overall creepy and scary story, thank you for sharing!

[@calirohrbacher3487]

This was such a good one, perfect for spooky seasons! "The Tell-Tale Heart" has always been one of my favorites to read, it reminds me of the Spongebob episode inspired by the story! It's the episode where Spongebob gets squeaky boots and Mr. Krabs hates the sound of them so he "murders" them and hides them under the floorboards. Then he can't stop hearing the squeaking and he's driven to madness and confesses, even though no one was suspicious. As a kid I never knew they were connected, but when I first read this story in junior high it started to all make sense!

[@drwhitneykosters]

Haha, I had no idea there was a SpongeBob rendition of this story!

[@rudolphspeaks2792]

I recall reading this story in eighth grade during my English class, and the only aspect that truly stood out to me at the time was the moment when the protagonist begins to lose his sanity, convinced that the police can hear the victim beneath the floorboards. At that point, I struggled to fully comprehend the nuances of the narrative. However, as I have matured and revisited the text multiple times, I am now able to better appreciate the complexity of the story. In hindsight, I find that your analysis of the work is nearly flawless, as it captures the depth of the psychological tension and themes at play.

[@Calegend1]

One thing with Edgar Allan Poe is he certainly enjoyed his spooky stories. Kind of made me think about where his mindset is at. I think the character was possibly dealing with a psychological issue like a mental illness by that could just be me. I wonder if the author witnessed something traumatic as a kid that got him into writing these spooky stories.

[@AdrianPhoenix289]

I'v read this short story before and never can have enough. Always inching closer! I feel humans who have this mental illness they tend to latch on a specific thing (The narrator with the Eye) to justify their actions. It is hard to fully understand a person who has schizophrenia because of their mind set. Going in different directions, like a bullet bouncing off the walls within a metal box endlessly. Which the narrator's mind was bouncing off while the police were sitting in the room. I wouldn't have looked at the eye as an evil eye, making him come to life. As the eye would be a mirror to the narrator to show him how evil he is, that was a good plot twist to me!

[@drwhitneykosters]

Thank you for sharing this!

[@IBEnglishEruidites]

Poe is an ironist. And I think for me, the narrator's insanity ironically has him confess the deed. I do not think it is guilt. It is like what you said at the start of your video: the narrator communicates to readers that he is insane by trying to prove that he is not. To the officers that show at the door, the narrator is seen again trying to prove within the story that he is not mad, even placing his chair on the very floor boards for which the corpse was stored. Consumed with how the detectives perceive him and with proving that he is not mad, the narrator's beating heart increases. The narrator becomes focused on a heart, but also on the hypocrisy of the officers-- he convinces himself that they (the officers) know that the narrator did the deed. It is this very notion that increases the heart rate of our narrator. Readers get a glimpse of how the officers are responding to the narrator's actions of talking loudly, pacing the floor, moving the very chair that sits above the very spot where the man was murdered. The officers "chatted pleasantly, and smiled." I read this as reliable narration. The officers are pleasant. .Before this description, we see the narrator describe himself as very pale. It is likely the narrator is not actually pale at all in this section, because the officers are pleasant. Unfortunately for our narrator, he just thinks he is pale due to his madness. This is the unreliable narrator coming in to play. The officers show no signs of seeing a guilty man. Instead, the officers are convinced that the narrator is innocent, but it is the narrators' insistence that the officers know of the guilt that makes him confess. Those hypocritical smiles were "making a mockery of [the narrator's] horror." To me, this entire section rings similar to the start of the story, but instead the narrator is not trying to convince readers that he is sane; he ironically convinces himself that he is guilty in the officers' eyes; and that is why he confesses. There is no sense of guilt felt from the narrator. Only paranoia and all the other characteristics of a mad person, which ultimately lead to the the narrator's fall.

[@brendasalazar1263]

Would you trust someone you just met? I'd say no, because at the end of the day I don't know the person but that doesn't mean I wouldn't be unkind to that person. I guess my relationship with that person would be on a stand still, because I have a hard time with allowing myself to open up, but that's just me. Ironically, I found myself related to the narrator. Not that we are entirely the same, but at one point, I've gone through psychosis. During my time with psychosis, I remember feeling paranoid. Few examples that I do recall is me not wanting to go out, because I thought the government was after me. I thought I was hearing the voice of God, & I strongly felt any girl was after my previous partner. Ironically, after we broke up he went back to the girl that I shouldn't have been worried about, but that's none of my business I guess. Overall, my psychosis drove me mad, I kept cutting & dying my hair week after week, I started to isolate myself, & there was days where I didn't sleep for 24 hours. I am not sure, what helped me to snap out of it, I was pretty much doing the waiting game for my mental health to quiet down. Do I feel bad for the narrator? No, because he committed a crime. When someone isn't mentally well there is no excuse to treat or go after others in what the narrator did. I'm saying that from experience, because I said & done things that I will have to live with for the rest of my life, but thank goodness I have an awesome therapist.

[@aurikagrebeniuk9240]

Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" is an excellent look at guilt. The narrator thinks he can trick his conscience, but that only ends badly for him. He hears a beating heart, which is a strong reminder that shame will not go away, no matter how hard he tries. It's interesting to me how Poe uses the narrator's determination that he is sane to make his madness seem even scarier. How do you think the narrator's view of his own sanity adds to the general unease and irony of the story?