He is afraid of an Old Man's Eye that lives with him. The actions that this charecter or "man" - as he is known in the story - performs in order to stop his fear can lead others to believe that he suffers from some sort of mental illness. The very fact that this man is so repulsed by the old man's eye, which he refers to as "the evil eye", is reason enough to be suspicious of his character. The man has an inner struggle with the thought that "the evil eye" is watching him and an underlying feeling that "the evil eye" will see the real person that he has become. This paranoia leads the man to believe that the only way he can put down his fears is to kill the old man.
In both of these stories, the narrator is described as a murderer, utilizing disturbing ways to torture and kill their victims. In the Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator is vexed by the old man’s eye, of which he compares to that of the eye of a vulture. However, the owner of the eye, an old man that had cared for the narrator since he was a young boy, was not the direct result of the hate. In fact, the narrator states, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.
“mad”) may not have a strong enough conscience to feel guilt, the motive is both guilt and psychosis in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The narrator had no humane reason to kill a loved one, the guilt when the narrator murders the old man made his anxiety grow more so when the narrator planed the murder out. In the “Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator believes that a disease has made his senses better, and that his heightened senses helped him plan out the murder of the old man he loves, “The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dulled them” (Poe 884). The narrator states that... ... middle of paper ... ...r. That the narrator was indeed crazy, he murders a friend, a loved one over an eye. The eye that haunts him day and night, the eye that when it falls on the narrators makes his blood run cold alone drives the narrator crazy. The narrator has a hard time wanting to kill the old man while he is asleep.
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.
At the start, it is clear that the eye disturbs the narrator: “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 413). The frightening effect that the eye has on the narrator affects him so much so that he decides to murder the old man in order to get rid of it. This shows his belief that the eye has supernatural powers and demonstrates to what extent he wants to free himself of the eye’s imposing control. Moreover, when the narrator begins stalking the old man in his sleep, he has made a complete distinction between the eye and the old man: “[…] I could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person: for I had directed
The narrator quickly informs us that he killed the old man for none of the usual reasons but only because he could not stand the look of the man’s blinded eye. ( enotes ) The narrator is-in this case an unreliable narrator because he is not sane but pleads for others to think he is. Killing some because you didn’t like the way their eye look is not a sane thing to do. The narrator doesn’t even step back to realize the deed as murder or what the consequences would be if found out. Throughout the tale he is trying to prove, sanity exist within him as he depose of the body of the old man in a “sane” way.
Symbolism in Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart In Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator claims that he is not "mad" but his behavior tells a different story. He is truly determined to destroy another male human being, not because of jealousy or animosity but because "one of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it" (1206). The narrator sees the man with this ghastly eye as a threat to his well being, but it is he who is a menace to his own being. He kills the man with pride only to concede to his horrific crime due to his guilt-ridden heart. His heart is empty, except for the evil that exists inside which ultimately destroys him.
The use of colloquialism makes the image even more menacing as we do not understand greatly of this man. Originally, it could be perceived as an old man who regrets his actions in the past. It however, could also be seen as a man who enjoyed killing but must come up with an excuse to the reasons for killing him. 'My foe of course he was, that's clear enough, although.' The poem "Hitcher" has a character that expresses violence in a completely different manner.
Montresor is portrayed as a man that turns on his former friend, leaving him to die showing little to no remorse for his deed. The reader can use these clues to believe he is insane, or possibly just a heartless person. The reader knows that the two characters had a previous dispute that created tension between the two. Fortunato seems to not be bothered by this previous argument, but Montresor appears to be a holding a grudge to no end. After he had almost sealed Fortunato’s death, he says “My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so.” (169-170) That statement shows the reader that it is not the man he just killed that is making his heart sick, but it is the atmosphere he was standing in.
Ultimately, the narrator tells his story of killing his housemate. Although the narrator seems to be blatantly insane, and thinks he has freedom from guilt, the feeling of guilt over the murder is too overwhelming to bear. The narrator cannot tolerate it and eventually confesses his supposed 'perfect'; crime. People tend to think that insane persons are beyond the normal realm of reason shared by those who are in their right mind. This is not so; guilt is an emotion shared by all humans.