The TellTale Heart by Edgar Alan Poe Genre

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Alan Poe

Genre Introduction: What Is “Short Story”

l Fiction l Novel l Short Story l Fable l Parable l Tales

l plot l Narrative point of view l Setting l Characterization

Point of View n n Definition: The perspective from which a story is told. Types: A. The narrator a participant (writing in first person “I”) B. The narrator a nonparticipant (writing in the third-person)

A. The Participant Narrator n 1. A major character n 2. A minor character

B. The Nonparticipant Narrator n n 1. all-knowing (or omniscient): seeing into any of the characters 2. seeing into one major character 3. seeing into one minor character 4. objective: not seeing into any characters (Ex. Ernest Hemingway’s works)

The Unreliable Narrator n n Definition: the story told from the point of view of a person who, we perceive, is deceptive (欺瞞的), self-deceptive (自欺的), deluded (迷惑的), or deranged (錯亂的). Why the use of an unreliable narrator: to create a lively conflict between what we are told and what, apparently, we are meant to believe (敘事者不等於作者)

Association n n (相關聯結) The non-participant narrator in “The Midnight Visitor”: seeing into one minor character The ironical point of view in “The Midnight Visitor” There is a gap between the author’s perception of espionage and that of Fowler, the young writer.

Some Names that You May Know n n n n n Stephen King Freddy Krueger La Llorona Bela Lugosi Bram Stoker The Addams Family Boris Karloff Yuki Onna Mary Shelley

Who These People Are 1 Stephen King: writer of horror novels ---ex. Misery (戰慄遊戲) n Freddy Kruger: character in Nightmare on Elm Street (半夜鬼上床) n La Llorona: Mexican folklore (weeping woman) n Bela Lugosi: actor; playing Count Dracula n

Who These People Are 2 n n n Bram Stoker: author of Dracula (德古拉) The Addams Family 阿達一族 Mary Shelley: author of Frankenstein Boris Karloff: actor; playing Frankenstein (科 學怪人) Yuki Onna: 雪女Japanese folklore

Thriller 1 n n Why are horror movies (thrillers) so popular? Do you believe in or will you influenced by the scenes described in the thrillers?

Thriller 2 n n n Function 1: to distract your mind from your real life pressure? Function 2: to enjoy the excitement invoked by the imagination of the weird or gruesome? Function 3: to release some of our deep fears in an environment in which there is no worry of our safety?

Thriller 3 n The unconscious in human psychology (Freud) vs. the Enlightenment exaltation of reason

Freud (佛洛伊德) 1 Three major elements in the constitution of human subject: -----superego (civilization; morality; education) -----ego (man’s basic biological need and pursuit) -----id (the dark, beastly impulses in human psychology) n Ex. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (《化身博士》; 1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson n

Freud (佛洛伊德) 2 n n reality principle vs. pleasure principle The extreme performance of pleasure principle will be destruction

Paranoia (偏執狂，妄想症) n Paranoia is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion (妄想；錯覺). Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state. (from Wikipedia)

alter ego 他我 (另一個自我) n n An alter ego (Latin, "the other I") is a second self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. It is a concept indicating that good and evil exist within one person, constantly at war.

alter ego 他我 (另一個自我) n The title characters in Robert Louis Stevenson's thriller Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) represents a typical case of alter ego.

The Wretched Life of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 -1849) n n n n Orphaned child of traveling actors The heavy gambling debt and the conflict with the well-off foster parents The subsequent disownment A successful editor The marriage with his 13 -year-old cousin The mysterious death Father of modern detective story

Poe’s exploration of human psychology

Further Associations: Multi-Person Point of View n n Have you ever heard of the film《羅生門》 (directed by黑澤明)? Do you have any idea of’ “《雪山飛狐》 by 金庸?

The text Poe’s vivid imagination of a psycho’s mind: -----The simultaneous awareness and denial of his illness the weird fantasies -----The obsessive fear of the old man’s gaze -----The extreme composure (沉著) and discretion (謹慎) in planning and execution -----The panic or loss of control when things go wrong n

The narrator’s simultaneous awareness and denial of his illness n “TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily -how calmly I can tell you the whole story. ” (1)

The narrator’s simultaneous awareness and denial of his illness n “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work!. . Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this. . ” (2)

The narrator’s simultaneous awareness and denial of his illness n n n “Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers --of my sagacity. ” (4) “And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense? ” (10) “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. ” (12)

Compulsion n It seems the narrator compulsively (不由自主地) stresses the discretion and precaution of his action over and over again to prove his sanity.

The narrator’s obsessive fear of the old man’s gaze n n “I think it was his eye (眼神) ! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. ” (2) 無所遁形?

The narrator’s obsessive fear of the old man’s gaze n “And this I did for seven long nights --every night just at midnight --but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. ” (3)

The narrator’s obsessive fear of the old man’s gaze n The narrator’s fear of the old man’s eye is actually the fear of the inner dark side of himself and his desire to kill the eye is hard try to kill the dark force in him.

The fear of the old man’s eye or the fear of himself? n “I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart. ” (8)

The old man as the narrator’s alter ego

n The extreme composure (沉著) and discretion (謹慎) in planning and execution “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight -with what dissimulation (掩飾) I went to work!. . . Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly -very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. ” (3)

The panic or loss of control when things go wrong n “It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage. ” (10)

The panic or loss of control when things go wrong n “It was a low, dull, quick sound --much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath --and yet the officers heard it not. …"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!" (17 -18)

The narrator’s confession n The narrator finally breaks down when he fails in his try to conquer the fear in him.

Questions n n n What do you think is the sound the narrator hears when he is going to kill the old man? What do you think is the sound the narrator takes as the old man’s heart beat even though he knows clearly that the latter is already dead? Why Poe chooses to employ the first-person point of view to narrate this story?

An Extra Note n n Our journalists’ poor performance by asking the perpetrator (犯案者) : “Do you regret of doing so? ” The detective’s imitation (imagination) of the perpetrator’s psychological condition in his/her effort to solve the crime.

Further Associations: Other Short Stories by Poe n “The Cask of Amontillado”《阿蒙地拉多桶 酒》 n “The Purloined Letter” 《失竊的信》

Further Associations: n n British film director Alfred Hitchcock (希區考 克; 1899 – 1980 ) and his film Psycho (驚魂記) based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch loosely inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein.

Psycho (驚魂記) n The film centers on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the motel‘s disturbed ( 有精神障礙的) owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and its aftermath.

Association: The Silence of the Lambs n n a 1991 American thriller film (沉默的羔羊) that blends elements of the crime and horror genres The film is based on Thomas Harris 1988 novel of the same name, his second to feature Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer.

Association: The Silence of the Lambs n n Directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Scott Glenn. In the film, Clarice Starling, a young U. S. FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Lecter to apprehend another serial killer, known only as "Buffalo Bill".

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