illustration of a human heart lying on black floorboards

The Tell-Tale Heart

by Edgar Allan Poe

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Discussion Topic

The narrator's aversion to the old man's eye in "The Tell-Tale Heart."

Summary:

The narrator's aversion to the old man's eye in "The Tell-Tale Heart" stems from an irrational obsession. He describes the eye as "vulture-like" and "pale blue with a film over it," which incites intense fear and hatred, driving him to commit murder. The eye symbolizes the narrator's descent into madness.

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Why does the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" hate the old man's eye?

In Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the old man’s eye is the object of the narrator’s hatred and a catalyst for murder. The narrator becomes obsessed with the eye, perhaps because it represents his own paranoia, predatory nature, and wickedness.

Insisting that he is not mad, the narrator claims to “love” the old man and not want his money; he is simply vexed by the eye:

He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

To the narrator, the old man’s mere gaze presents an inexplicably chilling menace—but why? The old man does not seem to present any threat to the narrator. Nonetheless, his eye wields power over the narrator, maybe because it reminds the narrator of his own true nature.

The vulture is a bird of prey that feeds upon corpses and is often associated with death and predation, but ironically, it is the narrator who becomes the hunter and the old man with the “vulture eye” who becomes the helpless hunted as the narrator stalks him. In order to escape the fearful sensations caused by the eye, the narrator resolves to commit murder.

The murder itself reveals the narrator’s own depravity as represented by the eye. He claims that “it was not the old man [he] felt [he] had to kill; it was the eye, his Evil Eye.” The narrator creeps into the old man’s room as he sleeps for seven nights, but he feels unable to attack unless the eye is open. On the eighth night, by the light of his lantern, he finally spies the “vulture eye”:

It was open—wide, wide open—and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness—all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones.

The eye is personified as a mocking challenger that stares straight at the narrator. It provokes him, chills him, and unleashes his malevolent hatred. Instead of viewing the old man as a person, he sees only the eye. Perhaps, however, this taunting eye is merely a projection of the narrator’s own evil reflected back at him.

After he kills the old man, the narrator seems to feel a short-lived sense of relief:

He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.

The narrator then dismembers the old man’s body as a vulture might, leaving it in pieces. Unlike a vulture, however, the narrator has not merely waited for his prey’s death, but caused it himself.

In the end, the murder is not a miracle cure for the narrator’s insanity. Although the eye may no longer vex him, the narrator is tormented by the belief that he can hear the old man’s heart beating beneath the floorboards.

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What does the term "evil eye" mean in "The Tell-Tale Heart"? Why does the narrator dislike the old man's eye?

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator and the old man appear to live together because the narrator is a caretaker for the old man.  Either they are family members, or the narrator works for the old man.  The narrator appears to be so vexed by the old man's eye because the old man probably "sees" who the narrator really is--one who has gone mad.  At the beginning of the story, the narrator tries to convince the reader that he is not mad and that he just suffers from acute senses.  However, as the plot unfolds, the reader sees that the narrator is in fact mad as he fixates on the old man's eye and plots to kill him to rid the house of the eye.  The old man is not an active character in the story, so the reader cannot confirm whether or not he knows about the narrator's mental instability, but we can assume that he does know given that they live together.  The narrator is likely also aware that the old man suspects his insanity, and the eye "sees" through the facade that the narrator attempts to build to hide his true identity.

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