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The Tell Tale Heart Analysis

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The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe, is a macabre and disturbing story, one that contains a wealth of hidden meanings within its confines. At first glance, the narrator appears to have a deep seeded paranoia concerning an older gentleman’s glass eye. The physical appearance of the eye fills him with an inexplicable fear and anger. Eventually, the narrator is driven to kill the old man despite the fact that he had never wronged him. The storyteller dismembered and hid the body beneath the floor board of the bed room. While this is indisputably the most basic understanding of this tale, there is a deeper meaning held within the depths of this deeply unsettling chronicle. It is rife with more profound concepts than what appear on the surface. For instance, the glass eye of the older gentleman represents the narrator’s fear of others prying into the depths of his being. It is representative of his own hesitation to face the things he so fears. This theory is supported by the statement, “…symbolically it means that the characters have issues with their ‘inner vision.’” (Shmoop Editorial Team). He is clearly a greatly troubled and anxious individual as is made clear throughout the story. Perhaps this is caused in part by his irrational fear that the vulture-like eye will be able to pierce his very soul and see his deepest fears. The narrator believes that by murdering the old man, the eye will not be able to uncover the fears that plague him. By preventing the eye from

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