`The Tell-Tale Heart` by Edgar Allan Poe

THE TELL TALE HEART : ALLEGORIES AND SYMBOLISMS

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Allegories and symbolisms that are usually used in literature serve the purpose of contextualizing the hidden meaning behind the texts into the common understanding of man for the reader to be able to at least grasp the main contentions of the literature . Both also provide an interesting way of leading the reader into different approaches in critically examining the content and the correspondence of the meaning behind every word , phrase , sentence and paragraph to reality

. Edgar Allan Poe 's The Tell-Tale Heart ' is one of the many literary works that contain allegories and symbolisms that present a point of view of its own

At the opening section of the story , one can note the line that says the disease had sharpened ' the senses of the narrator instead of making the narrator mad (Poe ,

. 3 . Further , the disease made the narrator 's sense of hearing acute ' granting the narrator the ability to hear all things in the heaven and in the earth ' as well as many things in hell (Poe ,

. 3 . The ironic situation at the initial section of the story can be traced from the fact that individuals suffering from any form of disease also suffer a corresponding alteration in their senses (Boorse ,

. 49

Diseases such as AIDS and Alzheimer greatly affect the individual 's sensory perception thereby resulting to distortion in what the individual actually perceives through his or her senses (Bongaarts ,

br 21 . Hence , there is something ironic about the statement concerning the `disease ' which enabled the narrator to hear more sharply every event in heaven and in earth . In to understand the context of that part the reader is expected to continue throughout the remaining parts of the story

As the story proceeds , the reader is told that the narrator killed an old man not because of the narrator 's desire for the aged man 's gold but rather because of his eyes - at least in the understanding and confession of the narrator . The idea of `symbolism ' enters the text when the narrator describes the eye of the old man as pale blue , with a film over it ' like the eye of a vulture (Poe ,

. 3 ) with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow (Poe ,

. 5 ) of the narrator

The passage might very well tell us that , by having the eye of a vulture , the old man appears to be keeping an eye on the narrator waiting for the day that the narrator will fall down where the old man will be able to pounce on his `decaying ' victim like that of a true vulture . The vulture-like eye symbolizes a sharp sense of watching over the actions of the prey which is on the verge of death . However , as it turned out , the predator became the prey as the narrator took the life of the old man , and thus rid ' himself of the eye...