
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe tells the story of a very troubled young man who assumes that murdering an innocent old man is the solution too his problem.  In the beginning of the story, the narrator, the young man, argues to any readers that he is not out of his mind and tries to prove this by reasoning through his actions.  Though as he explains his motives, they become increasingly ambiguous and only seems to support the possibility of mental instability.  He murders the old man for seemingly no reason at all.  He then takes the extra steps to chop up the old man’s body and stuff the pieces under the floorboards.  He urges for readers to see the evil in the old man due to his pale blue eye which drove the narrator to that state, but to any sane person, this would not have been a problem.  The narrator makes it his problem by becoming increasingly paranoid about the old man’s eye which fails to support his claim for sanity.  Real world examples can be studied and used to decipher the effects of the narrator’s paranoia and the old man’s impaired vision had on the hidden motives of the narrator.  Such examples include the Salem Witch Trials, the trial of serial killer David Berkowitz, the American Revolution, and the problems regarding racial discrimination in research studies.  These examples dive into the factors that could have influenced narrator both internally and externally.  They help explain the internal battles fought within the narrator’s mind and the external circumstances primarily focusing on the old man’s pale blue eye and impaired vision.  By examining these situations, readers can better understand why the narrator took such drastic measures to rid his life of the old man when it appears that he had no motive at all.  

Plagued by mental instability and a twisted infatuation with his neighbor, the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart exhibits the craziest of personalities.  His actions of extreme violence, such as the murder and mutilation of the old man, only further support this claim.  Regardless of these crazy acts, the narrator desperately attempts to gain the reader’s trust by insisting he is completely sane.  This becomes increasingly hard to believe as the story reaches its climax which consists of the brutal murder of an old man.  The murder might have even passed as excusable if the narrator had argued for more serious reasons, but he failed to do so.  The only excuse for committing such a heinous crime was that the old man’s pale blue eye bothered him.  From this fear that eventually ate away at the narrator, readers are able to pick up on paranoid vibes throughout the entire story.  This sense of extreme paranoia is responsible for the mental deterioration of the narrator and has not only cursed his life, but the life of other individuals also.  Some examples of this can be identified in the Salem Witch Trials and in the murder conviction of schizophrenic serial killer David Berkowitz.  Both exhibit qualities of paranoia and mental illness which led to the deaths of not just one, but multiple people.  These examples could possibly offer some insight into the deranged mind of The Tell-Tale Heart’s narrator in order to help explain his bouts of insanity and his actions which followed.  

Based on the narrator’s choices on how to carry out his plan, readers are able to easily identify him as mentally insane.  The plethora of mental illnesses to choose from can be narrowed down to paranoid schizophrenia simply because of the actions the narrator takes throughout the short story.  For instance, the man describes his plot to kill an innocent old man whom is in the care of the narrator all because of the old man has a creepy pale blue eye.  His reasoning for the murder is, “whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees –very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe 1).  This clearly does not identify any actual reason for killing the old man, but it does allow for readers to see that the problems come from within the narrators own mind.  He only wants to escape the gazes of the old man because he convinces himself that he cannot live with it anymore.  His paranoia increases to a point where he takes the life of an innocent man for no reason at all.  As an even better example of the narrator’s mental state, when he suffocates the old man, he feels the need to cut him up into a bunch of pieces and then stuff them under the floorboards.  This level of mental instability is difficult to comprehend which is why other real-life examples are needed.  As a result, the root of the narrator’s mental problems is easier to identify since his symptoms can be attached to an actual mental disorder experienced by other people.  

One of the examples chosen involves the Salem Witch Trials which happened in Massachusetts towards the end of 1692.  The situation started when young teenage girls were found dancing out in the woods in the middle of the night.  The townspeople assumed that the only reasonable explanation was that the young girls had been practicing witchcraft and had been taught so by one of the slaves from the Caribbean named Tituba (“Witchcraft in Salem”).  Consequently, from the suspicion of witchcraft, the town of Salem went into frenzy attempting to weed out any witches within their borders.  Those convicted could earn forgiveness if they were to give up any names of other persons involved and as a result, many innocent individuals were brought in for further questioning.  The tests for witchcraft involved a series of trials which consisted of reciting the Lord’s Prayer, examining for any physical marks through which evil could enter the body, testifying of witnesses for any evidence of witchcraft, and finally, confessing of the convicted.  Confessing was the only way out of trouble, but those who refused to admit to such a claim were put to death.  This witch hunt resulted in the death of twenty people and two dogs simply because the townspeople became increasingly paranoid about the nonexistent threat of witches.  In order to escape the punishment of death, convicted persons were asked to name other followers of witchcraft and if they could not supply any other names, then they were found guilty.  It only makes sense that they gave up random names in order to save themselves.  This led to the conviction of many innocent people who most likely had nothing to do with witchcraft in the first place.  Much like the paranoia experienced by the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart, the townspeople had no reasonable evidence to take such drastic measures in eradicating the “evil” within their lives.  The narrator’s paranoia convinces him that the old man’s eye is evil and must be destroyed.  This can be better understood with the examination of the Salem Witch Trials because both cases stem from the fear felt by both parties.  The townspeople were concerned for the safety of their community and the narrator was concerned for his well-being.  When they felt threatened, they both went to extremes in order to rid themselves of their versions of evil.  

The other example selected involves the case of David Berkowitz and the string of violent murders he was responsible for.  From July 1976 to July 1977, New York City inhabitants were terrorized by serial killer David Berkowitz.  For a whole year, he succeeded in sporadically running around with a .44 Caliber revolver shooting at random individuals throughout the city.  He mostly targeted people sitting in cars with the occasional shooting of people on the street or on their front porch.  Once the police initiated a manhunt for the serial killer, Berkowitz called himself the “Son of Sam” and would write letters to journalists and reporters in order to express his love for his killings and that he wished to continue them (“David Berkowitz | Son of Sam Killer”).  The police believed that Berkowitz was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia since he acted so randomly and seemed to have no particular motive for his murders.  Similarly, the narrator of Poe’s short story carries out his murderous plans with no intent other than personal satisfaction.  By examining the case of David Berkowitz, readers would be able to witness that mental illness is responsible for his spontaneous evil acts.  This connects the dots between the two because readers can infer that the narrator has similar, if not the same mental illness as Berkowitz which can explain the actions of the narrator.  This can at least give readers a source to blame for the fate of the old man instead of leaving them clueless as to why the narrator committed such a crime. 

The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart performs some pretty crazy stunts for seemingly pointless motives.  This leaves readers questioning whether there was an actual reason for the murder or if it was done out of pure impulse.  By diving into other real-life accounts of paranoid and mentally unstable individuals, some of those hidden reasons can be identified and summed up as a severe mental illness which caused the death of an innocent old man and the unraveling of the narrator’s mind.  Switching the focus over to the old man, possible outside motives for the narrator’s actions can be analyzed versus examining the turmoil going on within the narrator’s mind.  By taking a step back to the physical world, readers can consider any outside factors, such as the old man’s eye and his impaired vision that could have influenced the narrator.  

One of the most prominent characteristics of the old man in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart is his eye.  Normally, this certain trait of his would not be an issue unless someone made it one which the narrator of the story succeeds in doing.  The narrator makes the old man’s eye his problem and when he finally decides to put an end to this problem of his, the situation goes from bad to worse.  Caused by possible mental instability, the narrator becomes increasingly paranoid about the old man’s eye because of its pale blue color and how it looks as if a film is covering it.  This paranoia eventually leads to the gruesome murder of the old man and the self-conviction of the narrator.  The reasons behind the narrator’s motive are unclear, but by analyzing real world examples of historical and social blindness, possible explanations of the narrator’s actions can be argued for.  Two examples that help explain the narrator’s motives for murdering the old man are the American Revolution and the more current issue of racial struggles in research studies.  

The American Revolution obviously involves the power struggles between the newly formed colonies of the New World and their mother country, Great Britain.  It all started with the Age of Exploration which eventually led to the discovery of the New World or otherwise known as The Americas.  Soon after the invasion into North America, the famous thirteen colonies were formed and started a functioning society under the power of Great Britain.  Naturally, the colonies grew to be more and more independent due to the vast expanse of Atlantic Ocean separating them from their mother country.  Great Britain failed to realize that they were growing more powerful because they were primarily occupied with events happening within their own continent.  They turned a blind eye to the colonists and the colonies took this as their opportunity to gain independence.  Clearly, the colonists succeeded in their endeavors which was great for them, but almost detrimental to Great Britain.  They had just lost one of the most outstanding accomplishments in their history because they blinded themselves to the power of the colonies.  This can be said of the narrator and the old man in The Tell-Tale Heart.  The old man was blind, or suffered from impaired vision, and as a result, the narrator took the liberty of deciding the old man’s tragic fate.  Just like the thirteen colonies, the narrator took advantage of his enemy’s impaired vision and resulted to doing something drastic because of it.  This can help readers better understand why the narrator murdered the old man by demonstrating that when given too much freedom, more drastic measures can be taken.  Clearly, the narrator took advantage of this excess of freedom which resulted in his heinous acts of terror against the old man.  

Fast forward a couple hundred years to present day.  Revolutionary rebellions typically fail to make the top ten list of problems in the United States today, but blindness in the form of racial discrimination arguably is.  Not any type of racial discrimination, but specifically the type that involves certain races and ethnicities in research studies.  Research studies usually report important statistics that reflect the status of communities within a society.  In order to represent the society as a whole, members from every ethnicity and race should be included in the research so that any problems within the society can be properly shown.  When certain groups of people are left out of a study, this skews the results and can make it seem as if certain problems do not exist.  This can make societal factors such as disease risk, poverty, and environmental issues appear in better condition than they actually are.  “For instance, blacks and Latinos make up 30% of the U.S. population but account for just 6% of all participants in federally funded clinical trials” demonstrates just how uneven research studies are when it comes to race and ethnicity (Konkel 299).  By failing to include members of all racial backgrounds, major problems in societies are brought about and cause them to be hidden from helpful exposure that could solve the issue.  The inaccurate statistics reported back to research institutions makes such institutions blind to these issues.  This social blindness results in the lower quality of life of minority populations until it grows into such a large problem that it becomes impossible to ignore and as a result, something must be done about it.  This can be applied to the situation of the narrator and the old man.  The old man was blind to the mental turmoil suffered by the narrator and how he might act on those feelings of anguish.  Evidently, based off the fate of the old man, this blindness only resulted in a tragic outcome which was the buildup, or the breaking point, of the narrator much like the build-up to the breaking point of racial discrimination in research.  By looking at a similarly constructed situation with races in research studies, readers can see that as blindness continues, agitation and struggle builds until someone snaps.  It allows for readers to clearly draw some conclusions as to why the narrator felt entitled to react so violently against the old man.

The impulsive decisions of the narrator seem complicated and difficult to pull apart, especially since he argues so avidly for the readers to believe his claims of sanity.  The reasons behind his actions are murky unless other outside examples of possible influences are examined.  From studying the previously listed examples, readers can look at related instances in which mental instability and impaired vision impact the lives of others in the real world and how they turned out.  After looking at the cases of David Berkowitz and the Salem Witch Trials, it is reasonable to conclude that one of the possible motives for the old man’s murder could be the narrator’s mental instability.  From the cases of racial discrimination in research studies and the American Revolution, one of the possible motives is that the narrator simply had too much freedom.  The narrator acts on this feeling of freedom he gets from not being watched closely and obviously, things get ugly.  When these sources are examined and combined, the motives of the narrator are much easier to distinguish.  Internal and external factors can be analyzed in order to see what might have taken such a toll on the narrator’s mind and what could have possibly pushed him over the edge into insanity. 
