The Tell-Tale Heart

“The Tell-Tale Heart”

The Tell-Tale Heart, written by Edgar Alan Poe, is a thrilling and suspense story that describes a life, full of paranoia, of an insane character that makes the whole readinga creeping and exciting experience. Poe meticulously describes the feeling of the overwhelmed character who since the very beginning, argues to be sane and normal by justifying his malefic deeds.Through the lines, one is to perceive all the emotions, imagery and symbolism that the author wants us realize. Two of the most interesting symbolisms that were personally thought-provoking werecomponents of our human body, the heart and the eye.
The eye, to start with, has been an object of many interpretations. It is essential to mention that the eye could be a representation of the old manhimself, his essence. This eye was overwhelming to the narrator, even caused his ‘blood to ran cold’. By this expression is easy to conclude that has a significant and mysterious power on him.
Asanother interpretation, I found interesting Lorcher’s assumption of eye’s role in the story: “The old man's eye is "pale blue, with a film over it," indicating a lack of visual clarity and reliability. Inthis sense the eye symbolizes the narrator in so much as all the information we receive comes through his distorted mind, much in the same way everything the old man sees is filtered through hisdistorted eye. Furthermore, the story is told through the narrator's perspective, who claims his actions are on account of the distorted eye, which suggests the point of view is literally and symbolicallyfiltered through the old man's eye” (Bright Hub, 2011)
In the case of the heart, the vital organ of every human being, it is mainly interpreted as the guilt. When the characters were together in thedark and quiet room, they could hear nothing but the beating of the heart. This completely got the narrator’s nerves and emotions altered; even to the extent of causing him to kill the poor old man....