The Evil Eye in The Tell-Tale Heart Essay -- Tell-Tale Heart Essays

The Evil Eye in The Tell-Tale Heart In Edgar Allen Poes Short story The Tell-Tale Heart frequently is made of the evil eye of the old man. Immediately we are introduced to a man who would never hurt a fly. The narrator of the story even goes so far as to say he loved the old man. This old man is portrayed as one(a) who would do anything for you. However, the caretaker of the old man has one small problem with the old man. The eye that darn evil eye What could cause a person to become enraged by an eye and all one eye? Martha Womack stated that the violence comes from an irrational fear represented through the old mans eye. The belief in the evil eye dates back to quaint times, and even today, is fairly common in India and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. References are made to it in Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu faiths (Poedecoder). Womack goes on to compare the evil eye to a Medusa type object that is being able to harm a person just by looking at them. T his comparison goes to support my possibleness of a God like entity within the eye of the old man. Many people have attempt to rationalize the meaning of the single evil eye. whatsoever people have attempted to relate the old man to a Cyclops. However, I see this eye from a Christian point of view. The eye is not evil in the sense of the devil instead in my humble opinion it is the eye of God. I agreed with B. D. Tucker. The first thing I attempted to do, was relate the Cyclops theory however, this did not sit well with me. The reason the Cyclops theory does not fit the story is that in the second split Poe writes, One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture (Kennedy 34). The mythical Greek creature had only o... ...deas for what the story could represent. After studying the Evil eye in this story, I have no doubt that the eye is that of God. Work Cited Benfey, Christopher. Poe and the Unreadable The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart New Essays on poes Major Tales viii (1993 ) 27-43 Canario, John W. The Dream in The Tell-Tale Heart. English-Language-Notes 7 (1970) 194-97 Great Seal. Homepage 1 March 2001. Great Seal. 5 July 2001 Kennedy, X. J., 7th ed. An Introduction to Fiction. NewYork Longman, 1998 33-7 The Poe Decoder. Home page. 12 April 2001. The Poe Decoder. 5 July 2001 www.poedecoder.com Robinson, E. Arthur. Thoreau and the deathwatch in Poes The Tell-Tale Heart. Poe-Studies 41 (1971) 14-6 Tucker, B. D. The Tell-Tale Heart and the Evil Eye. Southern-Literary-Journal 132 (1981 Spring) 92-8