THE TELL-TALE HEART by Edgar Allan Poe
People might be asking how does a thing created to make it a whole? What are its components to achieve things coherently? There are many ways to find the answer in these particular questions, some of which are through analysis, evaluation and interpretation. In relation, this paper would give justice about one of the literary approaches, the Formalism in which how a particular text is being analyze, evaluated and interpreted. To be specific, “The Tale-Tell Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is being analyze with the overall components of Formalism. In fact, this literary work, works because mainly of its text where plot, character, point of view, etc., have their own unusual form.
The use of an unreliable first-person narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" serves a number of crucial functions. By telling this story from the viewpoint of a deranged major character, Poe provides insight into that character's motivation in committing murder as well as his purpose in relating it to the reader, the resolution of the plot of the story, and the tale’s intensifying dramatic impact. This has been the first thing that critics might observe in this literary work, the clearer picture of its point-of view. Obviously, the way how the first-person narrator (main character) got his exemption in his own wrong deed was to attempt convincing the reader that he was insane. To support this observation, according to Senin (2012) “the story is told from the first-person point of view, through the eyes of the madman. His attempts to convince the reader he is sane–that he just suffers from acute senses, for the readers to understand his rational for killing the man.” The question is, who was really the character? The main character was a murderer, an unnamed man who has gone mad because of his overly acute senses. That is why, his nervous mental illness led to kill his next-door neighbor, an ederly man. However, the narrator was a flat character since there was a little change showed by him throughout the story. In addition, other characters like police officers were sketching the real-life happenings (investigating the crime). Furthermore, its plot summary emphasized that the narrator has been driven mad by his next-door neighbor’s infected eye. He told the story by telling that the murder of the elderly man was and is entirely logical and understandable. He explains how he sneaks into the man’s chambers nightly to spy on him with his lantern. On the eighth night, the narrator did ultimately kill his next-door neighbor which later noticed by him that he heard man’s heartbeat. Further, the police officers came and investigated the house that night but they did not find any traces of man’s death which buried in the floorboards. However, the narrator begun to detect the deceased man’s heartbeat after sitting in a chair overtop the corpse. He was driven mad and later revealed by him that he was the one doing the crime. Lantern was mentioned above, which might bring to a question about its relationship on the setting of the story. According to Senin (2012) “the story is set sometime in the 19th century, as seen by the lack of electricity and dependence on gas lanterns. It is predominately developed in the bedchambers of the elderly man, most likely in some American town or city, where a murder and subsequent police investigation takes place.” Since the setting were quite common and ordinary, the author then realized to add horror of the situation because at some point, it was suited for setting’s mood. When it comes to its literary technique, critics might observe that there was a specific line on the text that shows irony. “The irony in the story is in the second sentence of the first paragraph; the narrator says "The disease had sharpened my senses— not destroyed, not dulled them” (CCH English 20 Classroom, n.d.). Ironically speaking, the narrator believed that his insanity was an asset to his situation but after all of his careful plans, he ended up admitting to the police that he had killed the man. Further, there was symbolism that can be seen in this particular literary work; the beating of narrator’s heart symbolized his conscience. “The narrator first perceives the sound as the man lies startled in bed, a warning that he should not go through with his murderous plan. The sound resonates again during his conversation with the police, again telling the man he should not play the dissembler and should rather admit the horrible crime” (CCH English 20 Classroom, n.d.).
In conclusion, the overall components of the literary work entitled “The Tale-Tell heart” such as character, plot, symbolism, literary devices and etc., are the ones who made the text became firm when it comes to its outside features. Indeed, Formalism is one of the literary approaches that allows critics to analyze mainly the text. It is evident above that the text was analyze using Formalism and the one being pointed out the most is the text itself and nothing more. The story being criticized above focuses mainly to its structural purposes wherein the literary work written by Edgar Allan Poe was achieved without taking into account of any outside influences. Its form and structure made the piece achieve its own art, the way it was written and its pure visual aspects. According to Cameron, K (2014) “a formalist looks for the same basic elements to judge a designer’s value based on the designer’s ability to achieve a cohesive balance.” Analyzing “The Tell-Tale Heart” using formalism approach gives more emphasis that critics were concerned with the manner of perception of the forms in the absence of any connotation. This simply means that the piece’ character, point-of view, setting, plot, symbolism, etc., are the basis in understanding the text. Readers might have the technique and ideas on how they are going to understand mainly the text before they will analyze what is behind the text. Close reading leads us to achieve beyond what we are reading.
REFERENCES:
Cameron. K. (2014). Why is formalism so important to design. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/onh3nqgdhx12/why-is-formalism-so-improtant-to design/#:~:text=Formalism%20is%20important%20to%20designers,designers% 0can%20produce%20their%20work.&text=Formalism%20also%20gives%20des gners%20a,their%20works%20can%20fit%20into
CCH English 20 Classroom. (n.d.). A class forum in English literature. Retrieved from https://cche20.wordpress.com/short-story-unit/short-story-analysis/
Senin. (2012). Formalist analysis: short story analysis title: the tell-tale heart. Retrieved from http://arulsmart-englisheducation.blogspot.com/2012/01/formalist analysis short-story-analysis.html
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