Early American Literary History: The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

When discussing on American literary history, a few periods will mechanically appear in minds such as the Romanticism, Realism, Transcendentalism, and Modernism (Luebering, Periods of American Literature). These periods left a significant impression on history in such that it inspired some great writers in creating their masterpiece. More than just an influence, writings from these periods became a huge help in establishing American literature as early as the 1600s (Luebering, Periods of American Literature). Hence, in this paper, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe will be reviewed as a bridge in knowing more about literature during the early days. “The Tell-Tale Heart” was first published during the 18th century in The Pioneer (Caitlin, The Tell-Tale Heart). It takes a form of Gothic literature which became popular in the 19th century due to events that faced by American society (Alam, 295). This literary genre explored the nation by addressing ongoing issues and depict experiences through dark and disturbing themes (Alam, 295). Thoughts and feelings in dealing with the events continued to be shared through writings despite its cause discomfort to some people.

It does not stop anyone from writing out their true feelings, especially not Poe. In this short story, Poe addressed mental health issue which it was and still a sensitive topic among society. He stressed on mental part by choosing to prove the protagonist sanity instead of his or her innocence. Ever since the beginning of the story, murder was never an issue. It focuses on telling the readers of how the protagonist was in the right mind for killing the old man. Various reasons were given to justify the act but nothing on the protagonist innocence. In a sense that, the protagonist has pride in his or her doings. Perhaps just like Poe, instead of focusing on what people think of him, he proceeds in writing this story with such passion that it became a treasure in the literary world. Not to mention, by having anonymous characters, readers can put their entire focus on how the protagonist was affected through the story. The focus creates an attachment which invokes emotions that readers can immerse in depth. With those emotions, readers can bring themselves into the story as the protagonist. It is possible since the characters have no attachment to any identity, therefore, creates open access for readers to step in. Seeing this, it genuinely feels that Poe wants readers able to relate themselves to the story just like he did.

Within the short writing, Poe successfully addressed essential issues such as mental health. It also is seen through his other works that Poe managed to contribute a lot through his writings. Some might not agree to his approach in using the dark and disturbing theme as a medium, however, “The Tell-Tale Heart” managed to deliver messages to it readers and leaves an impact where one could never forget. Undoubtedly, readers will remember this piece until the end of time together with its history.