Literary Criticism of Tell-Tale Heart - 2108 Words

Lam 1 Bethany Lam Mrs. Patrick American Literature 22 December 2009 Literary Analysis and Criticism of â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† Human beings have all experienced guilt, the consequence of committing a wrong, and the manipulation it has on decisions. In the short story â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart,† author Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates the theme that guilt is strong and has the power to overcome conscience; he uses characterization, the conflict, and symbolism to communicate this message. The characterization of the narrator most clearly shows this theme. In addition to Poe’s use of characterization, his decision to show the struggle the narrator endures with himself reveals the causes of the narrator to succumb to his guilt. The use of symbolism†¦show more content†¦The narrator’s reasons for killing the old man provide as much trivial proof of his sanity as his precautions do. The narrator â€Å"has no rational reason for wanting to kill the old man† (Chua 1). He declares to have desired to kill the ol d man as to rid himself of the old man’s vulture eye. The description of the old man’s eye as that of a vulture is the narrator’s attempt to defend his actions by comparing himself to a vulnerable being defenseless to an unsightly scavenger. The narrator claims, â€Å"Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye!† (Poe 1). The narrator declares love for the old man whom he brutally murdered and dismembered, chuckling at his cleverness in doing so. In an effort to divide the person of the old man from the old man’s allegedly evil eye, which prompts the narrator’s hatred, the narrator discloses his insanity. This delusional partition allows the narrator to be oblivious to the irony of claiming to have loved his victim. The first-person narration of the story helps reveal the narrator’s mental ill ness to the reader. â€Å"The particular standpoint from which the ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ is toldShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of Poes Successes and Failures in Poetry and Fiction1745 Words   |  7 Pagesdeath, thanks to his literary executor R. W. Griswold, who won more permanent attention for him after his death by exaggerating his neurotic debility and inherited dipsomania to make him an almost Satanic figure (Bradbury 206). This paper will examine Poes poetic and short story successes and failures, and show how he was not quite the Satanic figure that the reading public preferred to imagine him to be. Poes own life is as full of melancholy and darkness as his many tales and poems. 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