Direct Characterization In The Tell Tale Heart

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In the excerpt from “The Tell-tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe creates the suspicious character of an unnamed narrator through indirect characterization. Using the components of his actions, interactions, and motives, Poe illustrates a story about having a guilty conscience and reveals that we can lie to ourselves only a while, for eventually we will not be able to last any longer. This theme is portrayed throughout the passage from beginning to end through the narrator's actions and thoughts. The narrator’s actions and physical description shows only how he seems to be. The narrator’s actions are convincingly carefree and happy to the officers who came into his house. The excerpt from the story starts off with the narrator opening the door with …show more content…
Throughout the passage we are able to read about the man’s internal thought and motives, such as when he says,”I smiled,- for what had I to fear?” Because he asks himself this same rhetorical question, more that once, we are able to interpret the questioning into a lack of confidence and the need to convince himself that he has nothing to be worried about. In the beginning, we read that the narrator is telling himself repeatedly that there is nothing to worry about, that he is okay and everything's good. Then, we get to the end and it begins to get harder and harder for him to hold something, with so much weight, in. “But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone.” His motivation to keep going with his lie gets shaky, he can’t handle it anymore, not only mentally but physically, he begins to hear things. Overall, I believe the theme in this passage is really heavy and clearly out, being shown through another man’s life. Lying to others is hard, but to yourself, and constricting yourself to a lie that you have to convince yourself of, is even
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