Treatment of Inner Evil - Tell Tale Heart

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story authored by Edgar Allan Poe in which the underlining theme of evil becomes contradictory. Throughout Poe's passages are various instances of the illogical and unreasonable. In particular, the evil is pointed out by the narrator as being a physical evil. However, progression of the story conveys an immediate contrast of a hidden inner evil. Starting off the narrator claims his sanity, "You fancy me mad. But you should …

…actions each night, sense of control, delusions, and erratic behavior are all fueled from within - not from the eye. His guilty conscience destroys the perfect murder when he admits to the deed, (Poe 8). These instances depict the actions of the narrator and portray them as unreasonable when compared through his frame of reference. Outside of the madman's viewpoint lies the eye, nothing more than a scapegoat for the true evil, his own inner evil.