The Tell - Tale heart by Edgar Allen Poe Essay Example for Free

The Tell Tale heart by Edgar Allen Poe Essay The Tell Tale heart by Edgar Allen Poe is set in a house belonging to an old man. Poe writes the story from the perspective of the murderer. This adds to the horror of the story. By continuously stressing that he is not mad the, Poe creates a situation where the tension and nervousness of the narrator is felt by the reader. This short story has lots of symbolism. To the narrator, the eye symbolizes evil; to the audience, the beating heart symbolizes a guilty conscience, and the man may even sybolise the dark side of the human race often connected with Gothic literature. The style and theme of the story is identical to that of Gothic Literature. The theme is based on a dark side of human nature found in everyone. This side is mostly hidden, but it can emerge when a person is pushed over the edge. Fear pushes them over the edge and towards the dark side. The narrator tells the story from his point of view but also speaks to the reader. Now at this point you fancy me mad. Though when reading the story it soon becomes clear that the reader is talking more to himself than t the reader, trying to first persuade himself that he is not mad. He tells of how he killed the old man because of his vulture eye. He cut him up and then put him under the floorboards of the house. This kind of writing about murder and death is a feature of Gothic literature, which was very poplar at the time. The vulture eye represents the mans fear. His dilemma between appearance and reality is also a theme of Gothic literature. For the man, the eye also symbolized evil. The line whenever it fell on me; my blood ran cold, infers that the man is gripped by irrational fear. He is not just afraid of the old mans eye, but more what it symbolised: Evil. This pushed him over the edge. I think the eye vexed him more because eyes are sometime seen as a window into the soul of the person. Poe uses retorical questions at the beginning to persuade the reader that he is not mad. How, then am I mad? This makes the reader wonder what the person has done that is so bad. Similarly, the pauses at the beginning not only build tension, but they also communicate the fact that it is very hard for him to relay these events. True! nervous very dreadfully nervous the narrator realises that what he did was wrong and therefore, finds it hard to talk about. He is probably admitting it to himself for the first time also. You can feel the tension in him voice and almost feel sorry for him. The narrator does not believe that his disease is madness; he believes that his senses have been sharpened. The narrator thought that killing the man was a just thing to do; the eye was evil and therefore, must be destroyed. He wanted to get rid of the vulture eyes power over him; he expected to bury the dark side. Thus rid myself of the eye forever. This suggests that he was not only driven by irrational fear but also hope that the eye along with the irrational fear might disappear. This illusion is also a convention of Gothic Literature. When you finish the story you are left to think about the possible meanings. One poses the ultimate burning retorical question of whether the man is mad or not, Madness being a theme of Gothic literature. The way he insists he is not suggests that he is hiding the truth, but if he were really mad then he would not suspect it. Maybe he is being truthful; he cant see why so many people think he is mad. The sound of the heart that no one else hears definitely infers that he is mad. Though the beating heart also sybolises his guilty conscience. It troubles him while the police are there. He starts to realise that what he did was wrong. But surely if he was mad he would have no conscience. He has become tangled up in the evil he hoped to get rid of. So the answer to the question is left up to you. Do you believe that every human has a dark side and that that this evil dark side is only revealed when the individual is pushed over the edge?