Herman Mellville

The Tell-Tale Heart: A Story of Paranoia

His motivation was neither passion nor desire for money, but rather a fear of the man’s “blue eye.” He insists he’s not crazy, and his actions, also criminal, aren’t those of a mad man. Every night, he went to the old man’s apartment and secretly observed the man sleeping. After a week, he decides to kill the old man. The narrator hears a dull pounding, which he interprets as the old man’s terrified heartbeat, so he attacks the man. He is careful not to leave blood on the floor, and he hides the body. The police arrived, having been called by a neighbor who heard the man’s “shreks.” He appears normal to the police, but then hears a sound that seems to be the man’s heartbeat. He panics, so he confesses the crime. This is a story of paranoia and mental deterioration, with an excess of details like the heartbeat and the eye. There are also contradictions, such as the narrator’s incapability to love and hate the old man: he wants to separate the old man from his “Evil Eye” and divides the guilty and his look from the eye itself. By dismembering his victim, the narrator deprives the old man of his humanity, but he also uses the verb “FANCY” various times to underline the possibility of not considering the narrator as real and truthful.

Herman Melville: An Overview

Early Life and Career

Herman Melville [1819-1891] begins to work when he was very young. Because of financial problems of his family, he kept different jobs, such as a crude on a ship in 1841. After some months as a mariner, he disembarks on some isles, where he lived with indigenous people. He returns to the United States in 1874—here he begins to write, taking inspiration from his adventures.

Melville's Masterpiece

Melville’s masterpiece was “Moby Dick,” maybe the only case of epic poetry in American literature.

The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids

Testo - “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” (pag. 238) Our work is divided into two sections, the first focusing on the bachelors at the Temple Bar in London, and the second focusing on the factory girls at a New England paper mill.

The Narrator's Journey

At the beginning of the story, the narrator begins a journey through New England: travelling by horse, he heads east from the Berkshire Mountains to the hills. He passes through a rock-filled and windy canyon, and the locations become dangerous as he enters the Black Notch. The road drops into a deep valley, known as “Devil’s Dungeon.” Then he notes the Blood River (the name is due to the red colour), and the large building of a paper mill, where he wants to buy a lot of paper at a low price. He uses this paper for making envelopes for his seed business. The narrator presents his horse.