The Tell-Tale Heart is one of the best known story by Edgar Allan Poe. In this particular presentation the presenter try to study the story through the lenses of Freudian Psychology of ID, Ego and Superego.

1. Prepared by…..
Asha Dhedhi
Department of English
M.K. Bhavnagar University
Psychological
Study of
‘The Tell-Tale Heart

2. Plot Structure - Freytag’s Triangle
● Initial - Sanity
● Conflict - Continuous Seven
Night visit to Old Man’s
room
● Complication - What if Old
Man doesn't Open his Eyes
● Climax - Murder
● Suspension - Calm and
● Composed attitude of
Narrator
● Denouement - Confession

3. Sigmund Freud - Psychoanalysis
● Psychoanalytic theory of
Personality
● Fundamental structure of Human
mind
👉 Id
👉 Ego
👉 Super Ego
● Paper published in 1923

4. Human
behaviour
driven by the
desire for
selfish gains
and greed.
(Zizek)

5. Character Analysis of Narrator
Id
Irrational
decision of
Killing
Ego
Eexcessive
Self-Love
Super Ego
His Gulit
and
Conscience

6. Evil Side of
Human
Being
It is worse to be evil inside
than to be evil outside.
“Object there was none, passion
there was none, I loved the old man
He had never wronged He had
never given me insult,
For his Gold I had no desire.”
(By Narrator)

7. ● Self Positing Narrator
“Self(Narrator) is the only God that exists”(Pitcher)
● Ego - Centric
● Over-Identification
● Narcissistic Denigradation of others (Zizek)
● Ego - Evil (Ki)
● Multifaceted personality
● Ambidexterity - Irrational Affection
● Hypersensitivity
Psychotic Nature of Narrator

8. Big Question
??
Torturing Eye
Evil Eye
Vulture-Eye
Self - I
Imperfection
Of Self
Vs

9. Conclusion
● Human wickedness brought to light
● Narrator’s unexplainable crime - Psychological
approache provide justification to it.
● Guilt is worst Tormentor - Super Ego
● Ego - An egocentric(Narrator) who derives
pleasure from cruelty.
● Psychological complication of
Human mind.

10. References
● Bonaparte, Marie. The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psycho-Analytic
Interpretation, London: Hogarth P., 1949. Print.
● Freud, Sigmund. Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners, New York:
James A. McCann Co., 1920. Print.
● Ki, Magdalen Wing-chi. "EGO-EVIL AND "THE TELL-TALE HEART".”
Renascence
61.1, 2008, 25-39. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 3 Mar. 2011.
● Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1962.
Print.
● Pitcher, Edward. “The physiognomical meaning of Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Studies in Short Fiction 16.3 (1979): 231-233. Print.
● Zizek, Slavoj. Looking Awry, Cambridge: MIT, 1991. Print.

11. Thank You….