American Literature #2/ The Tell-Tale Heart / Madness over Reason

Madness over Reason

             Where does the word “enlightenment”, meaning awakening to reason, come from? According to Hans Blumenberg, it comes from the concept of vision, “to shine light upon”, hence its structure en-lighten-ment. As a matter of fact, it seemed peculiar to me: what does vision have to do with reason and enlightenment? Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart seems to provide a good starting point for answering this question. In this essay, I will explore the relationship between “his eye” and reason by answering the question, and further develop on how a madman successfully rebels against the violence of reason.

             The protagonist of Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart” states that he killed the old man to “rid myself of the eye”, along saying that people might think he is mad. Basing on these two descriptions, there is a clear juxtaposition between “the eye” and madness. Considering the antithesis of madness, “the eye” can be substituted by the concept of reason. How is this possible? The idea of reason comes from the act of seeing. By flashing light, man escapes from the dark, able to differentiate himself from his dark surroundings. Vision draws a distinction between the viewer and the object seen, since there has to be some distance in between. This again relates to reason, for the concept of reason needs a distinction with madness. Through the act of seeing, lines are drawn between two groups: normal and abnormal, us and them, inside and outside.

             Poe’s description on the madman and “the eye” can be discussed on a same level. The protagonist is gazed upon by the old man. This terrifies the protagonist, for he is objectified, differentiated from the old man. As shown in “…it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none,” “the eye” makes the viewer into a subject by exterminating object, it is also juxtaposed with “Passion”. In deeper analysis, it can be found that both words “Object” and “Passion” are capitalized and used as subjects in its sentences. However the repeated description of “…there was none” kills the subject words’ integrity. Object as a subject, Passion as a subject does not exist, for there is “the eye” that haunts the protagonist. The protagonist decides to kill the old man to get rid of “the eyes” that makes him powerless.

             The fact that the protagonist kills in a room “as black as pitch with the thick darkness” is remarkable. The old man cannot see the protagonist in the dark, thus he is vulnerable. However, a bigger merit of darkness is that the old man realizes that he is being watched by another. The fear of being watched as the protagonist “gazed upon it….with perfect distinctness”. Another significant point is that the protagonist fails to see the victim. He “could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person”, because he is a different being with the old man. However, the old man is frustrated anyway, killing himself. This raises an interesting question: Why did the killer use the victim’s way of executing violence over another? In order to rebel, one must use the weapons at one’s disposal. This a common means of vengeance also found in Tempest by Shakespeare and “Daddy” by Plath, for both authors use patriarchal language to destruct patriarchy.

             One might ask: “How is the protagonist a mad man? He never shows any symptoms of madness.” This point seems to stem from the thought that mad men should show outer symptoms such as drooling or have seizure. Madness relies on a juxtaposition of normalcy, meaning not normal. Normalcy here means one having reasons for his actions. The protagonist shows no affection towards treasures or property; nor does he have a grudge towards the old man. He is different from other people, because he does not have a reason for his action except rejection to the gaze of society. This rejection and absence of reason is sufficient enough to be treated as a mad man.

Comments

Haeuk Ko: Poe must have been both a mad man and a genius to have understood all these concepts and try to express them while at the same time he was trying to depict himself.

Yeji Park: I really like this piece! I think you interpreted the story very well by analyzing that the eye represents reason and the protagonist is mad man. What I recommend you for better piece is: maybe you can define what madness is. You used the concept of enlightenment and knowledge to explain about reason, but for madness, you only wrote that it is irrational to be obsessive so much over “the eyes” so to kill the old man. Maybe you can define this obsession as one typical type of madness. Good job!