Tell-Tale Heart analysis

Poe include the blue eye and the beating heart . The blue eye can stand for something evil from the narrator 's point of view . But this could also be seen in a way that the eye mirrors whatever is placed in front of it . Could it be that what the narrator is seeing is his own evil reflected in the old man 's blue eyes ? This could be another possibility and another perspective of interpreting the symbol . Likewise , the beating heart which the narrator believes to be the old man 's heart actually

symbolizes his own heart . It beats for fear (of being discovered and caught , for guilt (of killing an innocent old man , and for the truth (as they say what is hidden within the self will not stay concealed

Similar to other authors of gothic fiction and horror , Edgar Allan Poe often relies on the incremental repetition of totemic words for their heightening outry effect (Ketterer 192 ) In Tell-Tale Heart he repeated the words nervous , hears , eyes , cautiously , slowly , closed , steadily stealthily , louder , and dead

As one literary critique observed , Poe is emulated mostly for the same terrible excitement . the same minuteness of finish - the same slow and fatal accumulation of details , the same exquisite coolness of coloring , while everything creeps forward with irresistible certainty to a soul-harrowing climax (Kopley 231

If I were to sum up Tell-Tale Heart 's work essence in one word , I would pick brilliant . No wonder it remains one of the most well-read classic of all time

Works Cited

Books

Poe , Edgar Allan . The Works of Edgar Allan Poe . Philadelphia : J . B Lippincott Co , 1895

Journals

Kopley , Richard . Hawthorne 's Transplanting and Transforming "The Tell-Tale Heart ' Studies in American Fiction , Vol . 23 (1995 231-241

Ketterer , David "Shudder : A Signature Crypt-ogram in "The Fall...