An Analysis of the Vulture Eye in “Tell-Tale Heart”

In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the “vulture eye” that the narrator so loathes, and the beating heart that eventually makes him confess to his crime, are both prominent symbols. These two items are especially vital to the story: the narrator’s hatred and fear of the vulture eye lead to the murder of the old man.

The persistent beating of the heart, which gnaws at the narrator’s mind, makes him break down in hysteria.

The vulture eye may be an omen of impending death, foreshadowing the narrator’s gruesome murder of the old man. In the wild, when a vulture spots a sick or injured animal, it starts circling, waiting for it to die, waiting for its chance to feed on the remains. A vulture is a very watchful, threatening bird. It isn’t a pretty songbird or a harmless robin; a vulture is large, predatory, and menacing. Perhaps the narrator, in his crazed state, somehow felt himself prey to the old man, being stalked and monitored by his “Evil Eye”. The narrator felt he couldn’t escape that evil, watchful eye, and hatches a plan to destroy it. Eyes are often described as being “the mirrors to one’s mind and soul,” and in this case, the vulture eye is not a mirror of the old man’s mind but of the narrator’s. Because of this, the narrator sees already reflected in the eye the murder which he will later commit. That is, he sees in the vulture eye death, the evil which his soul already knows before the deed. Indeed, the narrator declares, “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold.” And, so, the narrator becomes disturbed in a cold premonition of evil to come. When the narrator sees the vulture eye, he sees his own guilt of causing the old man’s death; it is this guilt, this foreshadowing of the old man’s macabre death, that causes the narrator’s blood to run cold. However, the narrator, being insane, does not recognize this feeling of dread as being caused by his guilty mind, but uses it as a rational reason to “kill” the eye, in effect, obviously killing the old man.

The titular “Tell-Tale Heart” can be seen as a representation of the narrator’s subconscious guilt. After murdering the old man, the narrator seems to be remorseless, carefree even, as can be inferred from the following sentence: “As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart, for what had I now to fear?” Indeed, the narrator is cocky, gladly inviting the investigating policemen into the house, once again stating, “…for what had I to fear?” It would seem the narrator is truly guiltless. However, this is not the case. Even before killing the old man, the narrator felt guilt. “I knew that sound well too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart.” The narrator “knows” the beating of the old man’s heart well, not only due to his acute hearing, but also because every beat the heart makes while the old man is alive adds to the guilt of the narrator. At the peak of his confidence, the narrator once again “hears” the beating of the tell-tale heart (which is likely the beating of his own heart, or his own guilt given form through insanity), and starts to panic. He tries in vain to remain composed in front of the policemen, and ultimately succumbs to guilt. His guilt, ever increasing since murdering the old man, is reflected through the growing volume of the tell-tale heart, while the rhythm of sentence structure speeds up and becomes disjointed as the narrator’s thought process is shrouded in guilt. The narrator’s guilt over the murder, whether real or imagined, won’t be silenced. Undoubtedly, the narrator feels guilty. Each beat of the heart reminds him of his crime, and it is that feeling of guilt that leads him to confess. In a final schizophrenic frenzy, the narrator rips up his floorboards to reveal the horrific act he has committed: a direct result of his insanity making him mistake his own heartbeat for the old man’s, and the overwhelming guilt he feels as he imagines the dead heart beating once more.

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