Masyita Rizkia Rachma

J1A016035

LITERARY CRITICISM: Psychoanalysis (revision)

The Tell-Tale Heart: Unnamed Man and His Defense Mechanisms

Things that give people anxiety are everywhere. They hide in every corner of the
house, in a dark hallway, behind famous writings, and even in the human body. It can be
found in any kind of shape: ghost, clowns, family members, or inanimate objects. When
someone is facing the thing that scare them, their brain starts to plan something—
something that can help them get out of this terrible thing. Sometimes it is planned, most
of the time their body is moving in auto pilot. In Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory,
defense mechanisms are tactics or strategies that someone uses to protect themselves from
anxiety. This mechanism is used to reduce the level of anxiety and to eliminate unwanted
thoughts in their unconscious mind. Defense mechanism does not always come in one
type. When someone is going through something, they will do anything to keep
themselves save and sound from the arising anxiety and or unwanted thoughts and
feelings. Defense mechanism can be good in some way, but at the same time it can harm
the person or the people around them. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, some
reader might think the unnamed main character is a straight psychopath. The story tells
about a person who hates on an old man’s eye and decided to kill him to get away from
his pale blue eye. However, through the story, the writer found that the main character is
actually applying some defense mechanisms to protect themselves from the thing he is
scared about: denial, projection, and displacement.

The start of story might shows the reader that the main character is in denial about
himself. Quoted from Pauhlus, et. al. (1997: 546), “denial refers primarily to defense
against painful aspects of external reality (e.g., Goldberger, 1983). It is usually
considered a primitive defense, both in the sense of developing early and in the sense of
crudeness and simplicity (A. Freud, 1936).” The main character in this story refuse to
admit or recognize that something has occurred to them: “but why will you say that I am
mad?” he said in the opening of the story. Readers of this story might recognize him as
mad man, and he deep down probably acknowledge that fact too. However, just like any
other person, the main character defends himself from that statement:

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But
you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I
proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what
dissimulation I went to work!

From the excerpt above, the readers can see that he is trying to deny the idea of an insane
person on him by telling the readers that he has plan and that is what a sane person would
do. Nevertheless, even though he keeps denying that he is mad, he keeps repeating the
word over and over again (line 2, 6, 18-19, 32, 102, and 133) to assure the readers and
himself that he is—in fact, not mad at all. The main character does not leave other clue
as to why he want to kill the old man beside that he hates the Evil Eye. Moreover, the
reader could sense that he denies another reason when he says “For his gold I had no
desire. I think it was his eye!” He denies the fact that he is not greedy for the old man’s
wealth and makes another excuse. When someone refuse to acknowledge their true
feelings and unwanted thought and turned it into something else, it is called reaction
formation, and it is way beyond the denial phase. Despite his hate for the owner of the
eye, he tells the reader the opposite of what he actually feels about the man: he loved
him. Sure the reader might think that that is his feeling before he is sure he hates the old
man. However, after the main character is sure that the old man and his eye disturb his
peace, he still acts the opposite of how he is feeling:

And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the
chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a
hearty tone, and inquiring how he had passed the night.

The excerpt above shows the reader that the main character denies his hatred by turning
it into something different than what he is feeling. The main character also trying to deny
or eased the anxiety that arises after he kills the old man by saying ‘what had I to fear?’
twice to convince himself and the reader that he is not afraid of anything while in fact, he
is actually scared that someone will find out about what he did to the old man. This
defense mechanism may save him from the unwanted feelings and facts, yet denial
requires a substantial investment of energy. Because of this reason, the main character
might also use other defense mechanisms.

The next defense mechanism that the main character use is projection. As stated
in International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2005), “projection refers to the
displacement of something from one space to another, or from one part of a single space
to another (the Latin word projectio translates as ‘‘throw forward’’)” or in more simple
words, projection involves taking our own unacceptable feelings and ascribing them to
others. Projection is used when the main character refused to acknowledge that he is the
one who hates the Evil Eye and in turn, he is sure that he is not in the wrong and the one
who wants bad thing happens to him is the Evil Eye. Another assumption is the main
character and the old man have history. However, since he is dealing with his fear directly
with a very little help of his superego (provides the sense of moral and ethical wrongdoing
(Dobie, 2012: 58), he project this unacceptable feeling into another object that is the old
man’s eye that he describe as evil and resemble vulture. This defense mechanism also
appears after he kills the old man and the police officers come to the house:

They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a

mockery of my horror!—this I thought, and this I think. … I could
bear those hypocritical smiles no longer!

The excerpt above is quite explaining the projection that happens. The main character is
scared—he quite realizes that, but he does not want to acknowledge the cause of it is his
fear that comes from inside. Rather, he wants to acknowledge it as external causes that
caused by the old man and the officers who actually believed in his lies in the first place.
He blames it on them for mocking his situation by ‘pretending’ not to hear the voices he
hears. His fear and anxiety grows bigger by the fact that the officers have no intention to
leave the house and having a pleasant chat (paragraph 17). He keeps doing this defense
mechanism until he cannot keep it to himself anymore and explode.

Displacement can also be seen in the story as the continuation of the small circle
of the defense mechanisms that he uses. This defense mechanism might sound similar to
projection; however, displacement is that defense mechanism in which feelings or
impulses are unconsciously redirected from a more threatening person or object to a less
threatening one (Ziegler1, 2016). While projection is the act of ascribing the unwanted
feelings to others, displacement is the act of taking out the frustration and feelings to
others; therefore, this defense mechanism can be harmful and threatening to the other
person. As the reader know the main character hates the Evil Eye so much that he has a
plan to get rid of the eye for ever (line 16-17). At first, he has no reason of being scared
of it, it just something that come to his mind—the pale blue eye always gets his blood
ran cold. From the story, the readers can know that both of them meet every day and live
in the same building or house and it seems like the house only consist of both of them.
Therefore, the closest thing for the main character to displace his frustration and fear is
to take it out on the old man, because first the Evil Eye is attached to him and second the
old man is so old that he is probably a less threatening person for the main character. By
using this defense mechanism, his id is taking more part of himself. Id is an unconscious
part of the psyche that is the source of psychic energy and desires (Dobie, 2012: 351).
His desire to kill the man is to achieve his goal to get rid of Evil Eye, forgetting his
feelings and memories that he shares with the old man since they live together. He also
does not think of the consequence of what will happen after he kills the old man. All he
can think about is how to do his job and he has the perfect plan on how to do it. For a
week he grows a habit of checking on the old man, making sure that the old man is in the
unthreatening state before he kills him. There is a possibility on why the main character
has this midnight routine before he kills the old man. If the target is the Evil Eye, he
probably thought that he could get rid of it by damaging it directly when it is wide awake.
The drawback of this plan is when the old man sleep, his Evil Eye, unsurprisingly for the
readers, is closed:

“And this I did for seven long nights—every night just at midnight—
but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the
work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye.”

However, it is already stated in the beginning of the story that he intended to kill the old
man without any sugarcoat. Since the target is really the old man, then midnight or bed
time is the perfect time for him to do it. That is the time when the old man supposes to
sleep and unconscious and so he is in his most unthreatening state. Killing the old man
is like killing two birds with one stone, he gets to kill the old man and the eye that he
dreaded so much (line 16-17).
 In conclusion, to protect themselves from unwanted feelings, thought, and
anxiety, people use defense mechanism and also to reduce the level of anxiety and to
eliminate unwanted thoughts in their unconscious mind. In the story “The Tell-Tale
Heart”, the main character shows more than one defense mechanisms. The story starts
with the unnamed narrator being in denial about him being insane. However, since this
type of defense mechanism kind of need other type of defense mechanism to make the
unwanted thought gone, he shows the reader other mechanisms such as projection and
displacement to deal with his feelings. Projection happens when he refused to
acknowledge his feelings and thought and he project it on the Evil Eye and the officers.
The last defense mechanism is displacement where he takes out his frustration to the old
man or the Evil Eye by killing him.
REFERENCES:
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and empirical findings in modern social psychology: Reaction formation,
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Cherry, Kendra. “20 Common Defense Mechanisms Used for Anxiety.” Verywell Mind,
Dotdash, 2018, www.verywellmind.com/defense-mechanisms-2795960.
Dobie, Ann B. “Psychological Criticism.” Theory into Practice: an Introduction to
Literary Criticism, by Ann B. Dobie, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012
McLeod, S. A. “Defense mechanisms.” Retrieved from
www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html
Mijolla, Alain de. International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Thomson Gale, 2005.
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Serravalle de Sá, Daniel, and Edgar Allan Poe. "The tell-tale heart." (1843).
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Therapy 34.2 (2016): 135-148.