2. Narrator
• The narrator’s reliability
• His insistence on his sanity
• Refers to his “disease”
• “I heard all things in the heaven and in the
earth. I heard many things in hell.”
• First Person Point of View – limited to only his
POV
• Uses “I”
• He is an unreliable narrator
• Never now who it is – not even the gender
3. Symbolism
• In the first person POV narrator must use “I”
• He refers to the old man’s “Evil Eye”
• He loved the old man
• It is his own internal conscience or guilt
• It “…it chilled the very marrow in my bones…”
• The “vulture eye” has a film over it
• It can’t see clearly
• Vultures feed from the dead or almost dead
• The narrator may feel this way
4. Symbolism
• The dark room – rooms are usually
symbolic of a stage in life
• Every night he puts his “head” in the
darkness – his mind in the darkness – this
may be a reference to his madness
• The lantern shines one beam of light
• Light brings knowledge – clarity
• When the light shines on the open eye
then he decides to kill the old man –
killing the “Eye” – killing his “I”
5. Symbolism
• He attempts to kill his own guilt when
he can see it by the light
• The Heart – several references
• Right before he kills the old man he
pities him but “…chuckled at heart”
• He can hear the terror in the old man’s
heart, “But the beating grew louder
and louder, louder!”
6. The Heart
• After he killed the old man “…for many
minutes, the heart beat on with a
muffled sound.”
• When he no longer hears the heart he
is satisfied he is dead
• Places the body (with the heart) under
the floor
• Yet the beating of the “heart” makes
him confess – could not kill his own
guilt
7. Tell – Tale Heart
• The major theme is guilt
• It destroys him as well as his victim
whom he loved
