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【Abstrac】The Tell-tale Heart is one of the most typical gothic novel of Allen Poe’s. This article intends to analyse one of the gothic elements, that is, high emotion which is employed in The Tell-tale Heart to contribute to the horror effect.
【Key words】gothic elements; high emotion; psychology; oversensitive
Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most influential writer, poet, editor and literary critic in American literature. He was especially famous for his tales of mystery and horror, which could find their best expressions in Poe’s gothic novels. Dealing with the themes such as death, decay, madness and ghost, gothic novel usually contains the following elements: setting in a castle, an atmosphere of mystery, an ancient prophecy, portents, inexplicable events, high emotion, women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male, women in distress, the metonymy of gloom, and horror and the vocabulary of the gothic.(webset) Apart from high emotion, the other elements mainly rely on descriptions of the external surroundings and objects to creat the atmosphere of terror . High emotion, however, means that the narration may be highly sentimental, and the characters are often overcome by anger, sorrow, surprise, and especially, terror. (webset)It concerns more about human beings’ internal world, where the real and overwhelming terror arises. This is especially true of Poe’s work. Distinguished from the other gothic novel writers, he probed into human beings’ internal world by means of the delicate psychologcial analyses.(2008: 12) The Tell-tale Heart is a perfect manifestation of Poe’s skillful employment of high emotion conveyed by a oversensitive and abnormal young man. The young man killed his neighbour simply to rid himself of the old man’s annoying vulture eye. He then took apart the body and concealed the parts under the floor, thus convincing himself to stay calm when faced with the inqury from the policemen. The killer narrowly escaped the investigation but the consistent beating of heart causing his anxiety gave him away at last. From my perspective, high emotion in The Tell-tale Heart reflected by the oversensitive character is demonstrated by the killer’s absurd motive to murder and the acute sense of hearing.
1. The absurd motive to murder: terror aroused by the vulture eye
Neither out of revenge for offence nor desire for wealth, the young man’s motive to kill his neighbour was extremely absurd-- "it was his eye！ yes，it was this！ He had the eye of a vulture - a pale blue eye，with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me，my blood ran cold." He was so oversensitive that even an eye could pose a threat to him and stimulate him to commit the murder. In fact, his over-sensitivity could be expounded as paranoid psychosis.(2008: 29) The young man did not carry out the murder for the first seven nights because the old man was sound asleep with his eyes closed. The killer had not yet been triggered. It was the eighth night that the old man opened his eyes and the murder finally took place. The old man was wakened by a noise and "I saw it with perfect distinctness - all a dull blue，with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones." On seeing the eye, the young man suddenly grew so furious that he totally lost control and "could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person; for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot." He took the old man’s life at last to free himself from the haunted agony. The high emotion conveyed by the oversensitive protagonist who commit a murder out of an absurd and inexplicable reason passes on a sense of horror to the readers successfully. 2. The acute sense of hearing: the beating of the heart
"The disease had sharpened my senses - not destroyed - not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell." So he had always been hearing the beating of the heart. The beating of the heart, according to me, plays dual roles in this short story. On one hand, it symbolizes the doom of the old man; on the other hand, it is the reflection of the protagnist’s different psychological states and directs the whole process of the murder. The development of the beating of the heart could be divided into four stages. At the first stage, the beating of the heart came into the protagonist’s ear and “it grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every second”, where the protagonist’s anger was evoked and enhanced increasingly so that the murder was plotted, leading to the threat to the old man’s life. At the second stage, the beating of the heart became louder and “excited me to an uncontrollable terror.” The protagonist was then at the breaking point with his determination to terminate the old man’s life. At the third stage, “the heart beat on with a quiet sound” symbolizes the perish of the old man and his sense of release as well as satisfaction after freeing himself from the disturbing soud. The forth stage is the climax because “the ringing became more severe”, “kept increasing” and “grew louder -- louder – louder” until the protagonist could not bear it any more and made a confession of the crime. In fact, the beating of the heart is just an illusion originated from his internal terror. So it is not the beating of the heart but his abnormal psychological state that led him to the murder and then gave himself away.
Focusing on the character’s psychology, Poe employed the gothic element of high emotion as a key to the success of this short story in terms of the absurd motive to kill and acute sense of hearing of the oversensitive character functioning to develop the plot, introduce the suspension and create the atmosphere of horror. Actually, Poe also employed a variety of other elements to enhance the horror effect. For example, the author’s arrangement of the murder happening in a dark house could be considered as the variant of the “setting in castle”, and deep night is usually regarded as the “atmosphere of mystery”. Combining these all, Poe presented readers a thoroughly abnormal murderer and successfully passed on the sense of terror.
Reference:
[1]Wang Wei, The Transcendence of Allen Poe’s Novel, Journal of Literature Review.2008.
[2]Zhang Muxiao.The Rationality of Absurdity, Journal of Changzhi University.2008.
【Key words】gothic elements; high emotion; psychology; oversensitive
Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most influential writer, poet, editor and literary critic in American literature. He was especially famous for his tales of mystery and horror, which could find their best expressions in Poe’s gothic novels. Dealing with the themes such as death, decay, madness and ghost, gothic novel usually contains the following elements: setting in a castle, an atmosphere of mystery, an ancient prophecy, portents, inexplicable events, high emotion, women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male, women in distress, the metonymy of gloom, and horror and the vocabulary of the gothic.(webset) Apart from high emotion, the other elements mainly rely on descriptions of the external surroundings and objects to creat the atmosphere of terror . High emotion, however, means that the narration may be highly sentimental, and the characters are often overcome by anger, sorrow, surprise, and especially, terror. (webset)It concerns more about human beings’ internal world, where the real and overwhelming terror arises. This is especially true of Poe’s work. Distinguished from the other gothic novel writers, he probed into human beings’ internal world by means of the delicate psychologcial analyses.(2008: 12) The Tell-tale Heart is a perfect manifestation of Poe’s skillful employment of high emotion conveyed by a oversensitive and abnormal young man. The young man killed his neighbour simply to rid himself of the old man’s annoying vulture eye. He then took apart the body and concealed the parts under the floor, thus convincing himself to stay calm when faced with the inqury from the policemen. The killer narrowly escaped the investigation but the consistent beating of heart causing his anxiety gave him away at last. From my perspective, high emotion in The Tell-tale Heart reflected by the oversensitive character is demonstrated by the killer’s absurd motive to murder and the acute sense of hearing.
1. The absurd motive to murder: terror aroused by the vulture eye
Neither out of revenge for offence nor desire for wealth, the young man’s motive to kill his neighbour was extremely absurd-- "it was his eye！ yes，it was this！ He had the eye of a vulture - a pale blue eye，with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me，my blood ran cold." He was so oversensitive that even an eye could pose a threat to him and stimulate him to commit the murder. In fact, his over-sensitivity could be expounded as paranoid psychosis.(2008: 29) The young man did not carry out the murder for the first seven nights because the old man was sound asleep with his eyes closed. The killer had not yet been triggered. It was the eighth night that the old man opened his eyes and the murder finally took place. The old man was wakened by a noise and "I saw it with perfect distinctness - all a dull blue，with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones." On seeing the eye, the young man suddenly grew so furious that he totally lost control and "could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person; for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot." He took the old man’s life at last to free himself from the haunted agony. The high emotion conveyed by the oversensitive protagonist who commit a murder out of an absurd and inexplicable reason passes on a sense of horror to the readers successfully. 2. The acute sense of hearing: the beating of the heart
"The disease had sharpened my senses - not destroyed - not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell." So he had always been hearing the beating of the heart. The beating of the heart, according to me, plays dual roles in this short story. On one hand, it symbolizes the doom of the old man; on the other hand, it is the reflection of the protagnist’s different psychological states and directs the whole process of the murder. The development of the beating of the heart could be divided into four stages. At the first stage, the beating of the heart came into the protagonist’s ear and “it grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every second”, where the protagonist’s anger was evoked and enhanced increasingly so that the murder was plotted, leading to the threat to the old man’s life. At the second stage, the beating of the heart became louder and “excited me to an uncontrollable terror.” The protagonist was then at the breaking point with his determination to terminate the old man’s life. At the third stage, “the heart beat on with a quiet sound” symbolizes the perish of the old man and his sense of release as well as satisfaction after freeing himself from the disturbing soud. The forth stage is the climax because “the ringing became more severe”, “kept increasing” and “grew louder -- louder – louder” until the protagonist could not bear it any more and made a confession of the crime. In fact, the beating of the heart is just an illusion originated from his internal terror. So it is not the beating of the heart but his abnormal psychological state that led him to the murder and then gave himself away.
Focusing on the character’s psychology, Poe employed the gothic element of high emotion as a key to the success of this short story in terms of the absurd motive to kill and acute sense of hearing of the oversensitive character functioning to develop the plot, introduce the suspension and create the atmosphere of horror. Actually, Poe also employed a variety of other elements to enhance the horror effect. For example, the author’s arrangement of the murder happening in a dark house could be considered as the variant of the “setting in castle”, and deep night is usually regarded as the “atmosphere of mystery”. Combining these all, Poe presented readers a thoroughly abnormal murderer and successfully passed on the sense of terror.
Reference:
[1]Wang Wei, The Transcendence of Allen Poe’s Novel, Journal of Literature Review.2008.
[2]Zhang Muxiao.The Rationality of Absurdity, Journal of Changzhi University.2008.