Analysis of the Vulture Eye in The Tell-Tale Heart

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Edgar Allen Poes The Tell-Tale Heart published in 1843, explores the psychological paranoia which facilitates the psychoanalytical journey of a madman. The grotesque deviation of the murderers seemingly sane mindset dramatizes the equivocation which, instead of its attempts to separate from madness, rather highlights it. The wide range of imagery and sensory descriptions used within Poes story illuminates the light on the ambiguity that catalyzes the gothic story. One of them is the vulture eye, which Im going to analyze below.

Poe gives one of the strongest samples of the capacity of the human mind to deceive itself and then to form conjectures on the nature of its own destruction. The protagonist sees the old mans eye as blue with a film or veil, symbolizing the characters issues with their inner vision, trapped behind the veil. The pun of eye and the narrators own subjective character of experience I furthers the nuance of shallowness, killing on the accord of a hard blue eye. The readers understanding of the story is likewise filtered through the veil[ed] eye, creating ambiguity and mystery within the text, just like the dark room where the murder took place. Poes narrator did not kill the old man for cynical financial gain (For his gold I had no desire), nor did the old man wrong him, instead the narrator finds no purpose in killing the man besides to get rid of the vulture eye. Even his proffered motive, the old mans evil eye, is weak, unconvincing even for the murderer himself (I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!). The imagery and inclusion of the old mans eye creates and amplifies the meaning of the alibi for the murder, and how insane it truly was to kill over something so unimportant. The narrator feels prey to the vulture eye, on a psychoanalytical reading, he is faced with his own Ego which he hates so much he attempts to close the eye in that he can see who he really is, a man hideous from the inside.

Poe conveyed the notion of torment by the guilty conscious in the short story The Tell-Tale Heart in which the capacity of the human mind can cause self-destruction. Poes implication provides a study of paranoia and mental deterioration. The mental disorientation creates a jerky syntax which is dramatized by the imagery of the vulture eye. The nuance of ambiguity throughout The Tell-Tale Heart allows multiple interpretations of the text as well as showcasing the complexity of the human brain.

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