The Tell-tale Heart: The Influence of Poe’s Childhood on His Writing

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, is a short story focusing on a mentally deranged soul that ultimately murders an innocent man due to the narrator’s obsession with his “evil eye”. Poe’s story is unique and many wonder why his stories have such a dark nature. Most don't realize that many of Poe's works are due to his frame of mind after what appears to be a very somber life that he experienced. Edgar Allen Poe lived a brief, desolate, and complicated life that shaped him into an author and poet who wrote very strange, depressing, and dark works.

Based on research, it appears that Poe's dark childhood is the main contribution to his eerie writings. 'The Tell-Tale Heart' is a perfect example of his many gloom-ridden works. Although 'The Tell-Tale Heart' is dark, it is also extremely captivating, along with everything else he wrote as well. It seems as if his most famous work was 'The Tell-Tale Heart', which raises questions to if he had a personal meaning behind the short and gruesome story. By researching Poe's past, it is apparent he went through many tragedies in what seems to be a very short life. Though Poe of course had normal and happy moments in his life, it seems that darkness consumed most of him, as none of his well-known poems contain any sort of light or positivity.

Edgar Allan Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Unfortunately, within three years, both of his parents died. This resulted in Poe being taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant, John Allan, and his wife, Frances Valentine Allan. It seems as if John Allan wanted Edgar to follow in his footsteps as a businessman, as Edgar also did excellent in school. He ended up attending the University of Virginia where he did very well. According to The Raven Society at the University of Virginia, it is stated, 'Generally well-liked, Poe was considered talented, if slightly odd by his peers'. After some unfortunate events, Poe was not able to return to the University. John Allan did not send him enough funds for tuition, leaving him in a bind. He resorted to gambling, which left everything to go downhill from there. Gambling was definitely not his strong-suit, and he ended up drowning in $2,000 worth of debts, according to The Raven Society. This was just the beginning of his ill-fated adolescent years.

About two years later, Poe was accepted into West Point Military Academy. While he started again as an excellent student, it seems he was kicked out nearly eight months later. The U.S. National Archives Blog wrote, “The Conduct Roll for July–December 1831 lists the number of offenses committed by cadets and their corresponding demerits. Poe’s name appears about midway down the list of top offenders, with 44 offenses and 106 demerits for the term”. Many other odd or unfortunate events happened in Poe’s life. After he left West Point, he was in poverty, and John Allan died, leaving him nothing in his will. He then moved to Baltimore to be taken in by his aunt, Maria Clemm. Poe then fell in love with her daughter, Virginia, and he married her when she was only fourteen years old. Virginia died of Tuberculosis at age 24, leaving Poe devastated. He then became engaged to another woman, but never made it to marriage. On the way home from a trip, Poe went missing for five days and was found in the bar room of a public house being used for an election. Poe spent the final days of his life in a hospital surrounded by strangers, because his fiancé knew nothing of where he was. He died at the young age of 40 on October 7th, 1849. His death still remains a mystery.

After learning much about Poe’s erratic life, it is much easier to see why his stories were so dark. He lived a life where he had been rejected, he dealt with relatives dying from the time he was a toddler, he made an abundance of mistakes, while also living in poverty for a chunk of his life. A huge moment of rejection in Poe’s life was when the only father he ever had, left nothing for him in his will. After researching for letters or diaries containing Poe’s true feelings of depression or rejection, it appeared that The Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore possessed a letter. This letter contains Poe expressing his concern and distress to a friend, John Kennedy, regarding his impoverished state with his father leaving him no money. Part of the letter says, “Since the day you first saw me my situation in life has altered materially. At that time I looked forward to the inheritance of a large fortune, and, in the meantime, was in receipt of an annuity sufficient for my support. This was allowed me by a gentleman of Virginia (Mr Jno Allan [John Allan]) who adopted me at the age of two years, (both my parents being dead) and who, until lately, always treated me with the affection of a father. But a second marriage on his part, and I dare say many follies on my own at length ended in a quarrel between us. He is now dead, and has left me nothing.”

The tragic events that occurred, mainly death and rejection, influenced Poe’s literary work tremendously. They are portrayed through the loneliness of characters he writes about. In the “Tell-Tale Heart”, there are many obvious correlations to Poe’s personal life. The psychological state of the narrator of the story is questionable, and every reader has a different perspective on it. There are many possibilities to the true reasonings behind the murder that the narrator committed. Some readers interpret the character and his “acute hearing” and “over acuteness of the senses” to be evidence that he is insane. However, other readers argue that Poe is trying to integrate super-natural abilities in the story. After further research, it seems evident that Poe was trying more to show his insanity rather than a superpower.

Poe may have been influenced by real life situations in making the main character in “The Tell-Tale Heart” seem insane. It is believed that Poe uses the insanity defense in this short story. During the mid-nineteenth century this was a controversial topic in court because in the early nineteenth century the idea of “partial” or “moral” insanity was ridiculed. Moral or partial insanity is the belief that someone can have abnormal emotions and behaviors but also be relatively normal intellectually and also be a functioning member of society. Most would agree that the protagonist of this story was not confessing to the murderer in court, but rather trying to prove his own sanity. This correlates with Poe’s life, as many thought he was insane.

It should now be extremely evident that Poe integrates aspects of his own disposition such as the thoughts of death and the use of supernatural abilities in his stories. While some think the narrator in the story was just insane, it is also possible that he was trying to incorporate supernatural powers into the story. Poe was using the supernatural characteristics as part of his escape of reality as Haldeen Braddy believes. Braddy says, “His art was a conscious attempt to transmit an experience of escape to the reader without involving that reader in any more of a psychological dilemma more than the writer himself felt.”

I see Poe’s life reflected in this story by his understanding of the human mind, and his incredible ability to write from the perspective of an insane man. Poe was constantly plagued with depressive and morbid thoughts and was able to transform that into a thrilling mystery. He was also able to create an incredibly intricate character that a more “normal” author would be unable to create.