“We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.” Gene Wolfe, a published author (AP), clearly describes the importance of symbols. Throughout a story, one item can have such a substantial meaning that it changes the reader’s perspective entirely. Edgar Allan Poe is a man of countless symbols and horror – his story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a monologue with numerous underlying meanings and deranged thoughts. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” Poe embellishes the narrator’s insanity by employing the symbolism of the old man’s vulture eye, watches, and the heart. The use of the old man’s eye in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is tremendously significant in illustrating the narrator
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It denotes the narrator’s guilt. The endless beating of his heart makes the narrator declare the truth of his actions: “But any thing was better than this agony! Any thing was more tolerable than this derision!” (Poe 3). Although it is not clear to the narrator that the heart was his own, beating from worry and concern, readers know that the ringing is embodied in his own mind. The increasing resonance of the heart causes the narrator to confide in his wrongdoing and tells the police officers what has happened. The guilt eventually forces him to confess his misconduct. Poe also has the heart to represent the account of the narrator’s insanity. The continuous pounding of the heart and the narrator’s illusions contributes to the proceedings that take place: “I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continuously increased” (Poe 3). Since the narrator believes the old man’s heart is still thumping, he attempts almost anything to make the noise disappear from speaking in a more voluptuous tone or even banging furniture on the wooden planks covering the body. The narrator, assuming the heart is obvious to hear (AB), makes various noises. The commotion is doing nothing: it’s his own mind playing tricks on him. The heart repeatedly effects the way the narrator acts and in the end, his
It denotes the narrator’s guilt. The endless beating of his heart makes the narrator declare the truth of his actions: “But any thing was better than this agony! Any thing was more tolerable than this derision!” (Poe 3). Although it is not clear to the narrator that the heart was his own, beating from worry and concern, readers know that the ringing is embodied in his own mind. The increasing resonance of the heart causes the narrator to confide in his wrongdoing and tells the police officers what has happened. The guilt eventually forces him to confess his misconduct. Poe also has the heart to represent the account of the narrator’s insanity. The continuous pounding of the heart and the narrator’s illusions contributes to the proceedings that take place: “I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continuously increased” (Poe 3). Since the narrator believes the old man’s heart is still thumping, he attempts almost anything to make the noise disappear from speaking in a more voluptuous tone or even banging furniture on the wooden planks covering the body. The narrator, assuming the heart is obvious to hear (AB), makes various noises. The commotion is doing nothing: it’s his own mind playing tricks on him. The heart repeatedly effects the way the narrator acts and in the end, his