
The concept of power has been long debated as to whether or not it is a good or bad thing. However, power can be seen in many other lights aside from it being a concept of authority. Power can also be seen as something that can easily corrupt the mind in ways that are unimaginable. When analyzing a crime, one generally comes to the conclusion that the suspect’s mental state plays a huge role in the acts they have committed. In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator exhibits several instances of power, both physically and mentally through his actions towards the old man. In these instances, he proves himself to be an extremely egotistical character. He also shows a manifestation of abnormal psychological phenomena, mainly paranoia and obsession. Based on these observations, as well as the analysis of the narrator’s actions, it can be concluded that the narrator is a sociopath. This phenomena, in addition to his obvious egotism, leads to the narrator’s irrational act of violence against the old man. These claims can be easily tied to reality by comparing the instances from Poe’s writing to real-world evidence. This real-world evidence includes, in addition to Poe’s writing itself, Roy F. Baumeister’s Relation of Threatened Egotism to Violence and Aggression: The Dark Side of High Self-Esteem, Lynda M. Sagrestano’s Perceived Power and Physical Violence in Marital Conflict, T. Strenz’s Sociopath- A Criminal Enigma, and Katherine Ramsland’s The Many Sides of Ted Bundy. Ultimately, one’s mentality can be analyzed simply through their thoughts, actions and responses to their own actions.

In Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator first exhibits the concept of power when he decides to kill the old man. He decides this simply because he does not like the old man’s eye and also because he has the power to kill the man (Poe 65).  This in itself shows that the narrator feels entitled to having his own way no matter what the situation is. There is nothing holding him back from taking his life and he has the upper hand in the situation due to the old man’s fragile state. The narrator realizes that he has the power to do anything that he wants to do and uses that knowledge to harm the old man. He also realizes that he has the power to clean up the scene in a way that left no evidence behind from what he had done (Poe 66). His exhibition of mental capability is also shown in the beginning of the story when the narrator insists to the reader that he is not mad. He fully believes in his own mind that there is nothing wrong with what he did or how he did it. He explicitly says 

“But why do you say I have lost my mind; why do you say that I am mad? Is it not clear that I am not mad? Indeed, the illness only made my mind, my feelings, my senses stronger, more powerful. My sense of hearing especially became more powerful. I could hear sounds I had never heard before. I heard sounds from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell” (Poe 64). 

He acknowledges the fact that he is not well, but truly believes that the illness is the reason for his “enhances senses” when in reality, he is insane. His power, in these instances are shown in both a physical and mental light. In more ways than one, not only does this show that the narrator is not mentally stable but this also shows that the narrator is an extremely egotistical character. He does everything solely because they benefit him and his ideals instead of what is morally right.

The way in which one presents themselves and their personality plays a large role in psychoanalyzing them. The narrator in Poe’s writing can generally be described as an egotist. Egotism is typically described as one being extremely self-centered and conceited. Egotistical people will generally only do what benefits themselves and their best interests without any regards for others. The narrator showed this behavior in that he has a very narcissistic and grand view of himself and his ability to do whatever he pleases. Roy F. Baumeister’s article Relation of Threatened Egotism to Violence and Aggression: The Dark Side of High Self-Esteem describes ways in which the narrator’s egotistic and highly self-esteemed view of himself led to his violent nature. It is said that when one has a high self-esteem, they are easily more offended or angered when something opposes what they like (Baumeister 8). In this situation, the narrator is uncomfortable and “offended” by the old man’s eye and this makes him paranoid. The narrator states that “When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye, a cold feeling went up and down my back; even my blood became cold. And so, I finally decided I had the kill the old man and close that eye forever!” (Poe 65). Because of his paranoia, this threatens the view of himself so he then, in turn, becomes violent and kills the old man.  Baumeister states that “One major reason to suggest that violence may result from threatened egotism is that people are extremely reluctant to revise their self-appraisals in a downward direction” (8) This just means that expectations not being up to par can make an egotistical individual act violently because it is not what they want.

Power also plays a major role in relationships and how one handles them. For instance, more often than not, an abusive relationship comes about because one person in the relationship feels that they can control everything about the other and that the other’s submission is expected of them. Not only do they feel that they have that control, but they also feel that they have the right to discipline the other if they are not doing what they want them to. Lynda M. Sagrestano states in her article Perceived Power and Physical Violence in Marital Conflict states that “Power has been established as one important predictor of violence (Sagrestano 66). This ideology is the most common reason that a relationship turns into violence. In the case of Poe’s narrator, he is the more dominant character in the story compared to the old man. When the narrator realizes he does not like the old man’s eye, and that he did not want to look at it, he took it upon himself to get rid of it. Once the narrator realized that he had the power to not only frighten the old man by watching him sleep, but to also get rid of something he did not like, he could not be stopped and he knew it.

The narrator of Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart starts of the story by saying that he wasn’t crazy or mad, and begins to try to defend his actions. However, as one reads further into the story one can begin to analyze the mental state of the narrator and see that his actions are not normal. He exhibits obsessive thoughts, paranoia, auditory hallucinations, and sociopathic behavior all of which being classified as abnormal psychological behavior. At first, the narrator becomes obsessed with the old man’s blue eye, how it looks, moves and makes him feel which causes him to become uncomfortable when the old man looks at him (Poe 64). This escalates to the point that the narrator watches the man while he sleeps every night for a week, all while trying to decide what should be done about the old man and his eye (65). This behavior of repeated actions without one’s intention to do so is called a compulsion, which is yet another psychological factor that plays a huge part in the characterization of Poe’s narrator. The story then progresses to the narrator deciding that killing the old man to close his eye forever is the only way to take care of the situation (65). He remains calm until he begins hearing “the old man’s heartbeat” which of course was not there. However, it was not the old man’s heartbeat he was hearing, but rather he was not truly hearing anything at all. He was imagining the heartbeat in his own mind due to his paranoia of being caught as he tries to kill the old man. Because of his overwhelming fear of being caught in the old man’s apartment, the narrator rashly kills the man so that his heart stops beating so loudly. Yet this loud heartbeat comes back to haunt him later while he is talking to the police. His fear that they, too, had hear the beating of the heart made him confess to the murder. This action exhibits a clear paranoia of getting caught.

Yet another factor that gives insight to the narrator’s mental stability is the way in which he methodically hides the body and cleans up the mess he leaves behind. He takes care to hide the body well and to not leave any blood behind that could give away the fact that he had murdered the old man. The narrator had not once felt guilty or horrified by what he had done. Instead, he feels that what he had done was necessary and would have happened eventually anyways since the man was old and nearing death. Also, the narrator’s ability to calmly dismember and find a place to hide the body shows a great mental instability. No one in their right mind would be feel okay with even watching the old man sleep for multiple days in a row, let alone prey on him, then kill him in cold blood. Not only did the narrator do all of these things, he slowly and carefully dismembered the old man’s body and hid it in the floor boards. His lack of care for where he put the body as long as it was hidden shows a great disrespect for the old man. He also allows the police into the house and makes them believe his story about the old man being away and that it was his scream they had heard. Since the police easily believe his story about the man being out of town and that it was his shriek they had heard, it is quite clear to the reader that the narrator is extremely charming and can easily get others to trust him. He is also very good at manipulating the situation in his favor. Not only did he let the police into the house, he brought them onto the scene of the crime to have a casual discussion. By doing this, the narrator made the policemen believe that there was nothing to hide in the old man’s house. If he had said that they could not come in, it would look like he was hiding something and he knew this so he just played the whole murder off like it never happened. Based on these actions, the narrator shows sociopathic behavior. 

Strenz and Hassel wrote an article titled Sociopath- A Criminal Enigma that describes what a sociopath is and what makes them so dangerous. A sociopath is generally described as someone who is charming, intelligent, superficial, outwardly friendly, and extremely dangerous (Strenz). The article states that abnormal behaviors such as sociopathy, psychopathy and anti-social personality disorder are closely related and generally are the types of behaviors found in ritualistic or violent crimes such as rape and mass murder (Strenz). These types of people lack any form of guilt and have a need for instant gratification for their actions (Strenz). What makes these people so dangerous is that they can manipulate people into thing that they are normal and psychologically stable when they really are not (Strenz). Each of these characteristics describe the narrator in Poe’s story, and ultimately make the narrator a very charming but also very dangerous person.

An example of a sociopathic killer is Ted Bundy. Katherine Ramsland’s article The Many Sides of Ted Bundy begins by stating that Bundy could be many different things for many different people (Ramsland 19). She also informs the reader that Bundy was often referred to as a chameleon, and that he was mentally flexible in that he could be predatory while still seeming normal (19). Building on the idea that threatened self-esteem can make an individual act in a violent manner, Bundy learned that he was a bastard child to an unwed mother (19). Learning this tarnished his self-image which was the starting point for his violent nature. Bundy also kept multiple long term relationships that he kept hidden from each other, and if he felt like it, ended the relationships and moved on quickly.  He was also later dumped by his girlfriend, and, as a result, went on a huge killing spree aimed towards women. When convicted for his crimes of the few women he murdered, he also refused the insanity defense and a plea bargain, which only shows that he knew what he was doing and had no remorse for killing those women. He later confessed to killing more than 30 victims over his lifespan while he was on deck for execution. What makes Bundy’s personality even more interesting is the fact that he graduated college with a degree in psychology. With that degree, it can be assumed that Bundy knew a lot about himself as well as what makes the human brain tick. This is ultimately what made it so easy for him to camouflage his true self in front of others. It also allowed him to change his personality on a whim to appease others’ cautions towards him. This also relates back to Poe’s narrator in that he is friendly to the old man in passing but really hates the old man and his eye. He also is able to charm the police easily, just as Bundy was able to charm his victims into trusting him. People such as these that so easily hide their true colors are the most dangerous predators there are.

As it is seen throughout this essay, one’s ultimate mental state can be analyzed easily through the study of their thoughts, actions and responses to their own actions. These claims are supported by real world evidence in the articles Relation of Threatened Egotism to Violence and Aggression: The Dark Side of Self-Esteem by Roy F. Baumeister, Perceived Power and Physical Violence in Marital Conflict by Lydia M. Sagrestano, Sociopath: A Criminal Enigma by T. Strenz and The Many Sides of Ted Bundy by Katherine Ramsland. These articles, in accordance with Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, can be used to tie several real claims to the narrator in the short story. The narrator in Poe’s story shows an array of abnormal psychological phenomena that lead to his violent demeanor. These phenomena include egotism, sociopathy, paranoia and obsession. These instances of the narrator showing these phenomena prove that he is, indeed, mentally powerful, but in all of the wrong ways. His mind was able to convince him of many horrible things as well as making him believe in things that did not exist anywhere but in his own head. Not only is the narrator mentally powerful, he shows a great sense of physical power as well. The instances of physical power, however, are always directed towards the old man in the story. Each of these different takes on power played a major role in the crimes that the narrator committed. Regarding the question of whether or not power is good or bad, it can be concluded that, in most cases, power is often abused and used for horrible reasons.
