Andrea Rico

Ms. Martinez
UNIV 1301
Critical Analysis of The Tell-Tale Heart
As I learned to analyze more about literary terms in short stories and learned how to
uncover past the different meanings of each story. In this short story, The Tell-Tale Heart by
Edgar Allan Poe one of the most used literally terms that is used throughout the whole story is
symbolism. I will explain how this literally term is portrayed and why is it important in the story.
Symbolism is the use of images or idea to represent ideas or emotions. In this short story
one of the most symbolic objects the author talks about is the heart and the eye. As we read the
short story the narrator talk about an eye. The narrator describes the eye of his old man as his
evil eye. He mentions in the story, One of his eyes resembled that of a vulturea pale blue
eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degreesvery
graduallyI made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye
forever.(Pg.68) An eye is usually a part of the human body to be able to have an outlook on the
world and our surroundings but symbolically I believe that the narrator or character has issues
with himself or his inner vision. The author also wrote I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so
cunningly, that no human eyenot even hiscould have detected anything wrong.(Pg. 71)
Meaning in the story he hid all the evidence of murder, every piece so nobody could suspect
anything but symbolically I believe it meant that at one point they eye could see past his inner
issues but it could also see his secrets and by getting rid of the eye, nobody would every find out
about them.

As I kept examining the short story the narrator also mentions a heart. After the murder of
his owner and the police coming to the house the narrator describes that he started hearing a loud
nose of a beating heart. The feeling became more distinct:--it continued and became more
distinct (pg.72) meaning the narrator says this ringing didnt really go away and instead kept
going louder and louder but symbolically I think the beating heart was his conscious. He felt bad
about killing the old man because in the book it says I talked more freely to get rid of the
feeling: but it continued and gained definitivenessuntil at length I found that the noise was not
within my ears.(Pg. 72) meaning when the narrator says until at length I found that the noise
was not within my ears what he is trying to say is the noise wasnt really an actually noise that
anyone could hear, it was his own conscious because he felt bad about killing the old man. He
really had nothing against the old man and the author explains it. I loved the old man. He had
never wronged me. He had never given me an insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was
his eye! everything comes down to this eye. The narrator is really paranoid because this eye is
evil but symbolically he is just having issues with his inner self making him kill the old man and
since he had nothing against that old man his started feeling guilty and bad, making him listen to
beating heart noises and come out with the truth.
As I researched and examined more about the story I realized the narrator had a
psychological disorder. True!nervousvery, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but
why will you say I am mad? (Pg.68) the narrator tries to prove that he isnt crazy for
committing murder just because we can come to conclusion this all happened because he was
mentally ill. The disease had sharpened my sensesnot destroyednot dulled them. The
author does afterwards give us a hint that the narrator is mentally ill, making him go crazy.

The Tell- Tale Heart demonstrates very strong techniques of symbolism throughout the
whole story and are important because it makes the reader understand that he didnt have
problems with the old man or anything, he had problems with his inner self that he couldnt face.
And even though he comes clean to the police and has no regrets over the murder of the old man
as a result we can realize that if we dont face our inner issues and face them it could lead to a
destruction.

References

Poe, Edgar A. The Tell-Tale Heart. The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed.
Joyce Carol Oates. New York: The Ontario Review, Inc, 2013. 68-72.
Pitchard, Hollie. "Poe The Tell-Tale Heart." N.p., 2003. Web.