Poe's Stories brief biography of edgar allan poe
Download 0.58 Mb. View original pdf
|
Short Story By Flannery OConnor
| The sailor’s version of events and Dupin’s analysis of what happened lineup perfectly. A vivid image of the secret lodgings of the Ourang-Outan are conjured in the sailor’s story and continue the idea of the furtive Paris streets after dark enjoyed by Dupin and the narrator. It is a world away from the police’s daytime scrutiny of the crime scene, which yielded nothing and brings a disturbing excitement to the gruesome story. The narrator of "Rue-Morgue" adds a few closing remarks. The sailor later recaptures the Ourang-Outang and sells it fora good price, and Le Bon is released from prison. The Prefect of the police knows he’s been beaten, but he’s obviously quite annoyed at Dupin’s skill. Dupin knows that the Prefect’s wisdom is shallow but that he is a good creature, and ends with a condescending quote about the Prefect’s main skill, to deny what is, and to explain what is not.” The final passage of the story brings back the narrator as the storyteller. He has been displaced by the persuasive voice of Dupin, but it has been the narrator’s eyes through which we have seen the events. The story ends with a summing up of the lessons learned which makes it sound retrospectively like amoral tale, but Dupin’s light touch and cutting humor save it from fitting into a traditional structure. THE TELLTALE HEART The narrator of "Tell-Tale Heart" defends his sanity – he says he is nervous, but that he cannot be called mad. His senses are in fact quickened, and he is more alert and has heard things from both heaven and hell. He admits that his motives for the act to follow are curious, that there was no passion that provoked it. Instead, it was a strange feature of the old man he lives with, that one of his eyes was different from the other and had an evil, vulture-like appearance, which convinced him to kill the old man so that he wouldn’t have to look at it anymore. The narrator starts by protesting his sanity but such a forceful declaration immediately raises suspicions that he might be misleading us or under an illusion. His inexplicable hatred of the old man’s eye and his fleeting, bizarre mention of heaven and hell create an impression of an eccentric man, who may not be as aware of his own sanity as he claims. The narrator of "Tell-Tale Heart" thinks we must suspect him of madness again, but we will be dissuaded when we see for ourselves the methodical, patient way that he goes about the murder. For seven nights, he creeps to the old man’s bedroom door, opens the latch, puts an unlit lantern into the room and carefully puts his head in after. Then he opens the shutter of the lantern so that a single ray falls on the eye. Every night, he is annoyed to find the eye closed, because it is its stare that gives him his motivation. The next morning, he always calls to the old man and asks him how he slept. The narrator seems to think that a person can only be mad if they aren't methodical. But his methodical efforts to kill an old man because he doesn't like the man's eye is crazy That he needs to actually seethe eye to commit the crime makes him seem even crazier. Poe increases and increases the suggestion of madness that he planted at the start of the story. Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com ©2017 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 41 On the eighth night, the narrator of "Tell-Tale Heart" is particularly gleeful about his sneakiness. He marvels at how the old man knows nothing of his plan. He even laughs a little to himself. But then he thinks he hears the man stirring, but he goes on, gradually putting the lantern inside, knowing that the room is pitch black. But he slips and the lantern chimes and the old man calls out. Download 0.58 Mb. Share with your friends:
|