A Different Journey: "The Tell-Tale Heart" Why is it Gothic?

The Tell-Tale Heart, what makes it Gothic

Name: 김호성A (Hosung, Kim)

Class: 10v1

ID Number: 131048

One of the classic gothic short-stories written in the Victorian era is perceived as “The Tell-Tale Heart.” However the author Edgar Allan Poe, the master of Victorian gothic literature has actually focused on some different aspects of gothic. Mainly gothic suggests the combination of Science Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Romantic, Fantasy, and possibly Victorian. But Poe focused more on the psychological aspects of his characters as they were often described mad or insane. When reading “The Tell-Tale Heart” it is apparent in the story that the person who is narrating is with no doubt crazy. It is written as a first-person narrative of an unnamed narrator. So going into the details let’s find out what aspects does Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” portray in terms of being a gothic literature.

There are some notable genres that are demonstrated in “The Tell-Tale Heart” such as being a horror story. The main plot of the whole story is basically killing an old man. The murder is committed through detailed planning and ends by disassembling the old man limb by limb. The horror doesn’t end here. The way of murdering the old man should be fairly noted as well. The narrator kills the man with a bed, crushing him under it. He traps him inside it and waits many minutes, until there is no heart beat to be heard. The idea of being concealed inside a bed and suffocating to death is frightening. Nobody I presume would prefer a death like the shown example. Even after that the murderer he tries to conceal the carcass by tearing it apart and putting it under three wooden planks. “First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.” A classic gothic horror story all the way.

The next genre to focus on is Romantic. In order to define Romantic the word “Passion” comes to mind. We often confuse Romantic with romance as the words are organized similarly. However the differences of these two words should be noted. Romantic is basically a mixture of strong feelings such as love or hate. It doesn’t necessarily mean love at all times, but if an emotion is expressed strongly and passionately we perceive these emotions to be Romantic. In contrast, romance mainly focuses on the emotion love as beautiful and ravishing. So how is Romantic shown in this story? Apparently the narrator has strong feelings for the old man’s eye which is the cause of the murder.

He describes it as an “Evil Eye” and shows his abhorrence by stating “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” On a normal person’s point of view this statement is very abstruse. How could a man commit a murder for a dislike of an eye? As we go on strong feelings about the man’s eye is splattered along the pages of the story. We can presume that the eye gave him a sense of vulnerability or weakness. A possibility would be that a power relationship might have been present between the narrator and the old man. The old man was the superior of the narrator and the eye was supposed to be the way of intimidating him or making him feel abject as an inferior being.

Finally we turn to the most important genre of all, Mystery. “The Tell-Tale Heart” could be explained with this one word, mysterious. From the beginning of the story the reader gets dragged into the story mysteriously by a conversation. The narrator suddenly and obdurately suggests that he is not mad. Also he tells you a story where he murdered a man. The story starts with a mysterious setting and evokes the readers to presume what would happen next. Another point to focus on is that the scenery of this incident is also mysterious as it is vaguely described. The ambiguous description gives a much more frightening and mysterious feeling for the readers. Furthermore, the dark environment that the incident takes place gives crucial information. The dark is when our eyes become useless and humans become dependent on other sources of light like the lantern. The narrator uses a lantern to see through the dark, but it has much more meaning to it. If we hold a lantern, the holder is able to visualize everything but the people who see the lantern are unable to recognize you. This creates an advantage of concealment over you. Relating to the story, the narrator feels a sense of superiority to the old man and his eye by holding a lantern as it hides his identity. Concealing one’s self is also an important issue on this particular story.

Concealment can be found all over “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Even from the beginning the narrator tries to hide the fact that he is mad. Going on he uses a lantern to cloak himself from the view of the old man’s eye. The murder is also done by concealment as I previously mentioned. The bed kills the old man by suffocating him to death. Suffocation is one of man’s greatest fears. For example, when I was little I used to go inside my blanket and tried to stay there for more than 10 minutes while my brother blocked all the exits, but it was impossible. The fear of suffocation and the lack of air gave me the chills. This clearly gives a spin to the genre of gothic. Finally, the concealment of the corpse is another theme of the mystery explained inside the story. Hiding creates a mysterious atmosphere. This is essential to create a tense feeling for the readers. So we can conclude that the genre Mystery not just creates a theme for the story but it is also essential for the main purpose of gothic literature, horror.

             In conclusion, the things that make “The Tell-Tale Heart” gothic are Horror, Romantic, and Mystery. But what about other aspects like S/F, Fantasy and Victorian? Unfortunately S/F and Fantasies aren’t included in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Poe might have excluded those aspects as it wasn’t common in his days. However in the case of being a Victorian Era story, because it was written between 1819~1900 “The Tell-Tale Heart” suffices the qualifications. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a classic gothic literature as many arguments and reasons support it. Now I have a much better comprehension in deciding whether the story is gothic or not. Just rely on the factors that form a gothic literature. Horror, Mystery, Romantic, S/F, Fantasy, and finally Victorian.