Tell Tale Heart Allegory

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Edgar Allen Poe is known for his many creative and ingenuitive uses of allegories. A great example of this would be what we see in The Telltale Heart. At first glance, I felt as if I had a strong grasp on the concept of the story but the closer I looked, the more I discovered. The most obvious example of allegories in this story would be the old man's Evil Eye. I personally believe that this is a symbol of how people's fear of each others differences can cause people to act out of hate and anger. However, I do not believe that this is the sole reasoning behind Mr. Poe 's choice to include this allegory. I also believe that the Evil Eye could also represent the old man's issue with his outlook on the world. He is partially blind to the rest …show more content…
As you can imagine, overlooking an allegory is pretty easy to do in a story like this where you can find one in almost every sentence. Putting that aside, the last allegory we will be studying will be the lantern. While we know what the practical use for a lantern is, the symbolic reasoning is not so clear. A lantern is generally used to shine light but this narrative is anything but light. However, there is a very particular description of the lantern used by our narrative which may be insightful. Edgar Allen Poe makes it a point to tell us that this lantern has a hinged panel that allows the user to choose how much light he wants to let in. I believe by now we know that a writer does not include something in his work for no reason, so what importance does this seemingly insignificant fact hold. I believe this goes back to the narrator's compulsive need to be in control. Much like the watch, the narrator believes himself to be in control of the old man in every way possible. Him being in control of how much light is being let in the room is almost a weapon the narrator has against the poor old man with his bad eye. This also ingrains the idea that under light, evil hides in the darkness. This is a pretty normal approach in horror stories so it is not a surprise that the father of horror stories would include it in his writing. All in all, Edgar
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