Examples Of Imagery In The Tell Tale Heart

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, shows that human ignorance toward their pet peeve may lead them to take the path of faint distortion toward the world if one does not control their mind. The symbolism of the old man’s “eye” haunts the narrator throughout the story by his disgust feelings toward the appearance of the eye. The combination of the anonymous narrator being mentally ill and his fierce hatred toward the old man’s eye, both dragged his life to take the unrighteous road; later on, he will receive the consequence of letting the evil dictate his actions.
Furthermore, the narrator gives the reader hints that he is mentally ill. Right out the gate, the reader can tell that the narrator killing an old man because of his appearance, …show more content…
As stated before, he spied long nights upon the old man to seek his perfect moment to annihilate his pet peeve. The heart of the old man being described as “a low, dull, quick sound, such as watch makes when enveloped in cotton” is an example of how repetition is used to emphasize that the old man is aware of that death is creeping upon him. After he kills the old man, that repetition of the old man's heartbeat shows up again; it represents his guilt for murdering an innocent person because just because of his ignorance toward the “hideous” eye. The power of the “eye” throughout the story overpowered his sense of morality to follow the path of evil. That is where his mental illness comes to play, his illness changed the meaning of evil. He constantly describes the eye to be “evil”, but the narrator is the one who is truly evil because he believed in his mental “disease” to exterminate the old man for his …show more content…
The words he uses such as, “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded… I thrust in” represents the illness has gotten stronger, and it changed his way of thinking. The disease convinced him that spying on the old man in a stealthy state is an accomplishment. All this spying was to wait until the eye was open because it was “always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work”, the work is to kill him. When the old man opens his eye, that was to go signal to kill him. After the assassination was done, he believed that his evil eye will bother him no more, but that is not the case in his “happy” ending. Later on, as 3 policemen came to search the house for a suspicious shriek heard from the neighbor, he began to hear the heart of the old man (repetition phrase) slowing getting unbearably louder in his mind which makes him admit his “deed” of crime. This noise was the narrator's heart due to him reverting to a state of moralness, and feeling deep