Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis on the tell tale heart
Analysis tell tale heart
Analysis of the tell-tale heart
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Analysis on the tell tale heart
Tell Tale Heart
"True!--nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses--not destroyed--not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heavens and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?"
"...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! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him."
It is impossible to say how the idea of murdering the old man first entered the mind of the narrator. There was no real motive as stated by the narrator: "Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me....For his gold I had no desire. I think that it was his eye!"
The narrator states that one of the old man's eyes was a pale blue color with a film over it, which resembled the eye of a vulture. Just the sight of that eye made the narrator's blood run cold, and as a result, the eye (and with it the old man) must be destroyed.
Every night at midnight, the narrator went to the old man's room. Carefully, he turned the latch to the door, and opened it without making a sound. When a sufficient opening had been made, a covered lantern was thrust inside. "I undid the lantern cautiously...(for the hindges creaked)--I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights...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."
The old man suspected nothing. During the day, the narrator continued to perform his usual duties, and even dared to ask each morning how the old man had passed the night; however, at midnight, the nightly ritual continued.
Upon the eighth night, the narrator proceeded to the old man's room as usual; however, on this night, something was different. "Never before that night had I felt the extent of my powers--of my sagacity.
In paragraph 3 and 4 the narrator explains, “ And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it. . . I did this seven long night-every night just at midnight. ” This shows that he was a calculated killer because of the time he took to watch the man before killing him. It shows how the narrator thought it through. Also shows how he was going to have to study the old man's sleeping behaviors in order to have to kill him.
Upon reading a little bit into the story the reader finds that the narrator likes the old man or rather doesn’t having anything against him, except for his eye. The pale blue eye was the focus point for his rage he hates but not the old man. How can anyone just hate someone’s eye without being mentally unstable? “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture – a...
Instead of ya know, kicking him out, the narrator decides he can no longer bare looking at the old mans “evil eye.” The eye makes the narrator think of a vulture’s eye, with it’s glazed over blue tint, always watching our narrator. This drives him into madness. He chops up the body and buries the old man under the floorboards. He keeps the man’s death a secret, but the guilt starts to take a toll on our murderer. The evil eye possessed the narrator in a sense. It consumed his mental state. His blood ran cold before the killing but now, the old man’s “beating heart,” increased his “fury.” The heart heated faster and faster. The man declares he is not a “mad man.” Could a mad ,an have been so careful, then again a mad man would kill someone over a glazed eye with no intention of pocketing the money he could have received for a natural case of death. He could have staged the death and made profit and no “beating heart” would have ever made him made. He buried his secret and we all know they come back to haunt
Even though the old man has done nothing to deserve this hatred, the young man is repulsed by his hideous feature. The man decides that he will murder the old man to escape the torment that the eye inflicted upon him. For many nights, the man approached the old man’s chambers with murderous intent, but could not execute his plans because he could not see the dreaded eye. One night,however, the old man awoke and the man maliciously murdered him and severed the libs. He meticulously hid all body parts within the walls and floor. When the police showed up the following morning, he calmly and confidently answered the door. After all suspicion had been
He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever" (Poe page #). This Quote explains how only the hatred for the eye drove the narrator mad. He had no desire for his gold or money he had no revenge to take he was just trying to rid himself of the eye. A man would not kill another man because of his eye this action would only be taken upon by an individual that is mentally unstable like the narrator in the "Tell Tale
Slowly Lady Macbeth manipulated his mind to think the right thing to do was kill Duncan. Macbeth had decided in order to prove his manhood he must go through with this horrible act.
For some strange reason, the narrator was obsessed with the old man’s eye. He wasn’t even certain on how it started, but to him, it was an eye of a vulture. The old man was going to be murdered because of his pale blue eye. Infact, for seven straight nights at midnight the eye was closed. It wasn’t until finally on the eighth night when the narrator’s thumb slipped on the tin fastening, which woke up the old man. He grew furious when he did see the eye and new inside that he must murder this old man because of his eye. It is hard to imagine why a person’s eye would bother another person enough to kill, but some people are truly insane.
In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, there are only five characters mentioned in the story: the narrator, the old man, and three police officers, none of whom is ever named. Throughout the story, the narrator tells the audience over and over that he is not mad. He becomes obsessed with trying to prove that he is not a madman and eventually goes crazy in the end. He tells the story of how he kills the old man after seven nights of watching him sleep. He has nothing against the old man and actually likes him, but it is the old man’s pale blue eye with a film over it that overwhelms the narrator with anger. This is when he decides to rid of this “vulture eye,” by murdering the old man. After finally finishing what he had set out to do, three policemen show up because of a complaint about a shriek. The narrator assures them that it was him that had shrieked because of a nightmare and asks the officers to sit with him. While talking with them, confident that they knew nothing, he starts to hear a noise increasingly get louder. He eventually cannot take it anymore and
The story opens and closes with images of blindness. The street is "blind" with an "uninhabited house… at the blind end." As he spies on Mangan's sister, from his own house, the boy intentionally limits what he is able to see by lowering the "blind" until it is only an inch from the window sash. At the bazaar in the closing scene, the "light was out," and the upper part of the hall was "completely dark." The boy is left "gazing up into the darkness," seeing nothing but an inner torment that burns his eyes.
The omnipresent imagery of darkness evokes the sentiments of fear, danger and death. “Come thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke in hell” associates the darkness of the night with supernatural powers, seen in the word “hell”. This creates a sense of unease in the audience, we feel inferior to the outside forces present. Darkness is seen as a blanket for dark deeds, in this case murder. It is described as “thick” – an impenetrable, heavy barrier. This creates a feeling of being captured, that there is no exit from this night. Death is shown in the passage through the use of the word “pall” – a funeral cloth, implying the future murder. The tone is suspicious, threatening. Lady Macbeth is full of madness, bringing fear to the audience. A similar image is portrayed in “nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark”. The image of darkness as a blanket masking the evil is often present throughout the first two acts. “Nor heaven peep” implies the sinful nature of what will be done, as heaven is forced to stay out of it. This suggests supernatural or demonic powers interfering in the actions, creating tension and unease within the audience. Darkness is also seen in the we...
The narrator wrestles with conflicting feelings of responsibility to the old man and feelings of ridding his life of the man's "Evil Eye" (34). Although afflicted with overriding fear and derangement, the narrator still acts with quasi-allegiance toward the old man; however, his kindness may stem more from protecting himself from suspicion of watching the old man every night than from genuine compassion for the old man.
This is the first sign that we can trust this narrator to give us an even-handed insight to the story that is about to unfold. But, as we later learn, he neither reserves all judgments nor does his tolerance reach its’ limit.
By looking at the old man, the reader can easily come up with many conclusions and symbolic interpretations. Firstly, the old age is a symbolic representation of all the aged persons, who appear discontented with their age. These individuals are more reserved and withdrawn from the rest of the society. The writer therefore omits the detailed explanations of the problems associated with advanced age and hence leaves the reader to make deductions. This means that he had the knowledge of these issues but failed to incorporate them into the story in order to make the reader understand better and develop a broader insight into the problem.
The wasted face of a little child looked out of the windows with eyes made wild, by the ghostly shades in failing light, and the glimpse of a drunk man in in the night, cursing and reeling from side to side. The poor boy trembling and trying to hide, clung to his mother’s skirts and cried, Papas coming!
“He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” (Poe 1)