Edgar Allen Poe’s real life
story was as bleak as his short stories. In
fact, The
Tell-Tale
Heart actually tells us a lot about how Poe felt about his own life. By taking a look at the time line of Poe’s life we find that The Tell-Tale Heart was actually written shortly after his
wife became an invalid as a result of a busted blood vessel. This gives us a picture of what Poe was feeling at the time he wrote The Tell-Tale Heart.
The Tell-Tale Heart was a story about a man who murdered an elderly gentleman. He did so because the
old man had an evil looking eye. However, after he finished the old man off, two policemen are dispatched to the home to inquire about some screaming heard during the night. At, first the murderer acts very calmly to throw the policeman off. He succeeds as they start conversing with the man in a very friendly manner. Yet, guilt catches up with the murder who confesses after imagining he heard the old man’s heart
beating through the floor boards where he was buried.
My opinion is that the old man stood for a symbol of innocence. Yet, the evil eye was not really the old man but a weakness of the old man that he could not help. It is further my opinion, that the old man was reference to his invalid wife. In fact, I believe that the fact that the heart was still beating after death was in fact a way of reflecting that his wife was actually dead. It is only her heart that is beating.
I also believe that he may have felt guilty that he did not want her to suffer and maybe secretly wished that she would pass away. This may have made him feel that he was murderous. The whole story could have been a way of justifying his feelings about wanting his wife to die.
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