880 Poe, Edgar Allan
of nationalistic thinking when Dupin states: “My
ultimate object is only the truth. My immediate
purpose is to lead you to place in juxtaposition, that
very unusual activity of which I have just spoken,
with that very peculiar shrill (or harsh) and unequal
voice, about whose nationality no two persons could
be found to agree, and in whose utterance no syllabi-
fication could be detected.” Because no one person
could agree on a set nationality for the voice, because
no utterances sounded equal to anyone, Dupin
argues that there is a problem with everyone’s logic.
All witnesses in this case are subject to the failings
of their own perceptions. Because no one is willing
to admit to not knowing the language heard, but
is willing to point to a language unknown, Dupin
rejects the truthfulness of all accounts. National
identities have gotten in the way of truth.
Nationalism allows each character in “The Mur-
ders in the Rue Morgue” to want the best of their
own countrymen—to have their own people not
be the murderer. This is a simple desire of most
people—to be proud of the people around them and
to feel safe living among their own. But through
Dupin’s rejection of the testimonies, we can see
that the limitations of nationalism can sometimes
circumvent the usefulness of ideology. When Dupin
must show the police the necessity of logic over
faulty witness testimony, clearly, national pride has
gotten in the way of sound judgment.
Eileen Sweeney
PoE, EDGar aLLaN “The Tell-Tale
Heart” (1843)
In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale
Heart,” the unnamed narrator and protagonist mur-
ders an elderly man with whom he lives, dismembers
the body, and hides the pieces under the floorboards
of his bedroom. Although the obsessive, paranoid
narrator claims that he is not a madman, that he
does not have criminal tendencies, and that he has
no burning motivation to kill (that is, the old man
never “insulted” him), he is driven to commit the
murder by his antagonist’s evil “pale blue eye,” which
is slowly compromising his sanity.
The protagonist’s paranoia forces him to live
a life of contradictions: He conveys to the reader
that he is not mad but nervous; not passionate but
detached; not weak and demented but powerful and
sagacious; not conniving but “healthily” methodical.
However, it is clear that in each case, he is the not
the latter but the former. Because of his paranoia (or
what he calls his “nervous condition”), the protago-
nist’s senses are heightened. He is able to see images
and hear sounds that are undetectable to a “normal”
human being. His struggle with mental illness and
his penchant for cruelty only intensify his reaction
to the deceased man’s “tell-tale” beating heart, which
only he can hear. The heart, which comes to symbol-
ize the guilt the protagonist inevitably experiences
after committing the murder, eventually leads to the
unraveling of his mental and physical composure,
forcing him into a cycle of humility and arrogance,
which culminates in his self-incrimination.
Tanfer Emin TunccrueLty in “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Like the themes of guilt and illness, cruelty is also
an integral part of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale
Heart.” In fact, the protagonist seems to thrive on
a perverse sense of cruelty, deriving pleasure from
observing his victim (the old man) as he sleeps. On
one occasion while the narrator is monitoring the
old man, he “had [his] head in [the doorway], and
was about to open the lantern, when [his] thumb
slipped upon the tin fastening . . . the old man
sprang up in the bed, crying out, ‘Who’s there?’ ”
Rather than making his presence known, the pro-
tagonist “kept quite still and said nothing. For a
whole hour [he] did not move a muscle, and in the
meantime [he] did not hear [the old man] lie down.
He was still sitting up in the bed, listening; just as
[the narrator had] done night after night.”
Although the protagonist and the old man both
suffer from alienation, mental anguish, and fear,
the narrator’s cruel streak prevents them from com-
forting one another. When the protagonist hears
the old man’s familiar “groan of mortal terror . . .
the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of
the soul when overcharged with awe,” he does not
allow his personal sympathies to intervene. Rather,
his sadistic nature only permits a mocking, terror-
filled laughter: “I knew what the old man felt, and
pitied him although I chuckled at heart.” Moreover,