In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" fear plays a large role. Fear is the main emotion as well as being the central theme of the story. Theme is a central subject or idea that is clearly evident in a piece of literature. In this short story all the characters feel fear in some way. The main character is the narrator, who never reveals his identity. For the narrator, fear is the motive to kill as well as the reason he turns himself in. The old man, the murder victim, feels fear when the narrator comes into his room at midnight hour of the eighth night. The neighbors, who hear the old man during the night, call the police as they also feel fear. .
The narrator is clearly frightened of the old man. At first is may be hard to understand why. The reader can tell that the old man treats the narrator well when he says "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insults" (36). However, the narrator is dreadfully afraid of the old man's pale blue eye as he explains, "but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye (36)." After having to look at the eye for several days the narrator kills the old man in an effort to end his fear. In fact, this is the only reason the narrator gives for murdering the old man. This shows that the narrator is mentally unstable and an unreliable character through which the theme is portrayed.
At the end of the story the reader sees that even killing the old man has not dispelled the narrator's fear. He has buried the old man under the house, yet he believes that he can still hear the old man's heartbeat. In reality, the heartbeat he is hearing is his own since his conscience is bothering him. According to the narrator, the sound of the heart gets louder and louder to the point that he believes the police, who are inspecting the house, can hear it.
A short story, "The Telltale Heart", was written by Edgar Allan Poe, a strange man with a deranged mind. The story was first published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843. In every person there is good and evil, and in this story the good in the narrator is pushed aside only to ...
A short story, "The Telltale Heart", was written by Edgar Allan Poe, a strange man with a deranged mind. The story was first published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843. In every person there is good and evil, and in this story the good in the narrator is pushed aside only to ...
It is important for the student to know that telltale signs of a potential problem include loud snoring, obesity, high blood pressure and a physical blockage of the nose, throat or upper airway. ... Important to note is the fact that snoring, in and of itself, is not indicative of sleep apnea; rather, it is but one telltale symptom (Sleep Apnea). ... Early recognition and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea is a critical step not only in getting a more restful night's sleep, but also in avoiding the potential complications of irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, heart attack and str...
It is important for the student to know that telltale signs of a potential problem include loud snoring, obesity, high blood pressure and a physical blockage of the nose, throat or upper airway. ... Important to note is the fact that snoring, in and of itself, is not indicative of sleep apnea; rather, it is but one telltale symptom (Sleep Apnea). ... Early recognition and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea is a critical step not only in getting a more restful night's sleep, but also in avoiding the potential complications of irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, heart attack and str...
Shortly later, Willard begins a journey of immense scope up the Nung River, through the heart of Vietnam, into Cambodia. ... And with this same bridge, so begins the tale of Charles Marlow and Heart of Darkness. ... Kilgore possesses the same stateliness that the "miracle", as Marlow calls the accountant, does in Heart of Darkness. ... There are telltale signs of hypocrisy woven throughout the storyboard that suggests hints of anti-altruistic value (which is part of the horror in both texts and it is a concern that links the two works fundamentally). ... In Heart of Darkness this voice i...
Stiffness in the morning, of joints and muscles may also be a telltale sign of Rheumatoid Arthritis. ... Occasionally, people with Rheumatoid Arthritis will develop inflammation of the membranes that surround the heart and lung or inflammation of the lung tissue itself. ...
Abortion is a controversial issue. From one side I support it because women have the right to control their bodies. Some of them find it the only choice to their problems. The other side of me is this story. After reading this story I think of abortion as a brutal process. I think of those wome...
AIDS, Acquired Immunodificiency Syndrome, is a human viral disease which destroys the immune system, preventing the body from protecting itself against infection and disease. One infected with AIDS becomes vulnerable to infections harmless in healthy people, but fatal to those with w...
In One of Ours the main character, Claude, is confronted with life changing decisions in his social and personal lives. He does not conform to many of the ideals, which his family lives by and therefore has become an outcast at home. However, Claude's personal struggles do not reside strictly within the confines of his household. His troubles carry on through the story and become especially apparent in his sexual life. At times, Cather portrays Claude as man who is crippled in his sexuality and is this act is demonstrated with the way he handles himself with women. ...
