Second type of death anxiety is Predation death anxiety. Langs 2004 suggests that predation death anxiety may lead to dangerous actions such as
violence to others. This condition also accompanied by unconscious guilt. The final type of death anxiety is Existential death anxiety. According to
Langs 2004, existential death anxiety comes from a basic knowledge that all living creatures shall be dead eventually. This condition is considered the most
powerful one. According to Lang 2004, a recipient defends hisher condition through series of denials.
C. Theoretical Framework
In this study, the relation of psychology and literature, theory of character, theory of characterization, id, ego, superego; and theory of symbol are used to answer
the problem formulation. Theory of character, theory of characterization and theory of unreliable narrator are applied in this study to elaborate the
narrator’s presentation in this short story. The point of view, later on, used to examine the way the stories
told. This study uses the narrator’s point of view and quotations. From there by
using theory of symbol, symbols that considered important for the analysis is elaborated and explained with series of the narrator’s quotations as proof. After the
elaboration of symbols the dynamic of the narrator’s unconscious mind is explained by using id, ego, and superego theory.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of Study
The object of this study is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”. This short story is first published in January 1843. Since then this short story became a classic-
gothic- prose and this short story considered by many as one of Poe’s most famous
works. This story influenced many writers and there are even some screen ada
ptations of this short story, such as “Tell-Tale”, this is a 2009 thriller film produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story about a person acting as the narrator and telling his side of the story. Actually, the gender of the main character or
the narrator is unstated but in this study, it is referred as a male person. In the story, he kills the old man not because he loathed the old man or the old man loathed him
but it was simply because the old man’s terrifying eye. The narrator keeps fixating his story to this paranoia and yet he
claims that he’s not insane. Furthermore, at the end of the story the narrator confesses his action after two policemen investigate the
house. The narrator’s unreliable speeches are the focus of this analysis. From that
reason, the narrator’s speeches are analyzed using the theory of symbols. Thus, the
symbols that lie within the story are described and elaborated. At last, the dynamic of the narrator unconscious mind is explained by theory of id, ego, and super-ego.
B. Approach of Study
For this research, Freudian Psychoanalytic approach is used. In Freudian psychoanalytic approach there are five distinctive features. First is the distinction
between the conscious and the unconscious mind is highlighted Barry, 2002:105. Second, unconscious motives and feelings based on the author or the characters
of the work are considered. Third, it demonstrates their presence in the literary work of classic psychoanalytic symptoms, conditions, or phases oral, anal, phallic stage in
the scope of emotional and sexual development in infants. Fourth, psychoanalytic approach makes large-scale applications of psychoanalytic concepts to literary history
in general. Fifth,
‘psychic’ context for the literary work can be identified by using psychoanalytic approach. Focusing the conflict between generations or siblings or
between competing desires within the same individual looms much larger than conflict between social classes becomes the importance of the approach with the literary work.
The stand point of this research is the fourth feature of psychoanalytic approach. The fourth feature becomes essential in this research because psychoanalytic theories such
as; id, ego, superego theory, and death anxiety theory are used. Both theories are applied side by side with literature theories such as; theory of symbol, theory of
unreliable narrator, and character and characteristics theory. The psychoanalytic
