The Dark Side of Humanity

Paper Summary:

This essay explores the evil that is within all of us, particularly the rationalization of murder, as presented in Edgar Allen Poe's story "The Tell Tale Heart." The paper specifically examines the literary techniques of point of view, tone, foreshadowing, and symbolism used in the story.

From the Paper:

"The use of foreshadowing throughout the story contributes to its suspense. For example, in the beginning of the story the caretaker proclaimed, "I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell" (59). This comment foreshadows the death of a person because heaven and hell are believed to be places where the soul resides after death. In this case, the comment foreshadows that the elderly man will go to heaven because he represents an innocent victim. The caretaker will go to hell for the sin of committing murder.
Death and insanity are also foreshadowed by the caretaker's obsession with the elderly man's eye. The caretaker declared, "One of his eyes resembled that 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" (59). This statement helps the reader to see that the caretaker feared the old man's eye and even went so far as to call it an "Evil Eye" (59). This troubled him so much that he was willing to kill the old man he loved in order to get rid of the eye."

More papers on The Dark Side of Humanity:

• Analytical Essay # 119753 : "The Dark Side of Mark Twain"
• Analytical Essay # 49635 : "The Glass Menagerie" and "Haircut"
• Analytical Essay # 63868 : "Spiritualism and the Supernatural in Poe's Writing"

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