The Evil Eye Essay - 784 Words

The Evil Eye Edgar Allen Poe shows us the dark part of human kind. Conflict with in ones self, state of madness, and emotional break down all occur within this short story. The narrator of the story is a mad man that is haunted by his idea that the old man has an evil eye. Through the first person narrator, Edgar Allan Poe’s quot;The Tell-Tale Heartquot; illustrates how man’s imagination is capable of being so vivid that it profoundly affects people’s lives. The manifestation of the narrator’s imagination unconsciously plants seeds in his mind, and those seeds grow into an unmanageable situation for which there is no room for reason and which culminates in murder. The fixation on the old man’s vulture-like eye forces the narrator†¦show more content†¦The narrator shows his contrariety when he confesses he loves the old man, but he is still too overwhelmed by the pale blue eye to restrain him from the all-consuming desire to eliminate the eye. His struggle is evident as he waits to kill the old man in his sleep so that he won’t have to face the old man when he kills him; but on the other hand, the narrator can’t justify the killing unless the vulture eye was open. The narrator is finally able to kill the man because of the torture of the eye. The narrator sets out to rid his life of the fear he created by obsessing over the man’s eye, but once that fear is destroyed, another fear – that of the heartbeat – is created and becomes more overwhelming than the first. In playing mind games with him – seeing how far he can push himself to triumph over his own insanity – the narrator slips further into a fantasy world. His overriding confidence in killing the man ultimately turns into overriding guilt even as he justifies in his mind the savage killing, chopping up the body and placing it under the floorboards. The narrator’s imagination creates his need and plan to destroy the eye, but it then creates the need to save himself from the heartbeat that drives him over the edge. Symbolism is an important aspect of the story. The major symbol is the heartbeat. The narrator believed that the sound was the beating of the old mans heart,Show MoreRelatedMy Father Is A Second Generation1600 Words   |  7 Pagesluck that guides us through the torment of a hard day, and brings us the peace to live comfortably. Like every culture, Italian-Americans have many of their own beliefs and wives-tails. One very familiar throughout the world is the curse of the evil eye. Italians call this the Malocchio Curse. Essentially this curse is given to an individual whom someone feels jealousy for. Often this curse is put on someone purposely, but there are situations where it can innocently be set. This curse is knownRead MoreComplementary And Alternative Methods Of A Family Member And Compile A Case File1138 Words   |  5 Pageswood or an infusion of marijuana are commonly used to treat susto. Mal de ojo or evil eye is a folk illness or belief that an admiring look or stare can weaken a person and make them sick. Symptoms of mal de ojo include fitful sleep, diarrhea, vomiting, fever or inconsolably crying in children. The cure for this is also sweeping a raw chicken egg over the body to absorb the power of the person with the evil eye and then broken into a bowl of water and examined. After the interview with ALVRead More The Evil Eye in The Tell-Tale Heart Essay1795 Words   |  8 PagesThe Evil Eye in The Tell-Tale Heart  Ã‚        Ã‚   In Edgar Allen Poes Short story The Tell-Tale Heart much is made of the evil eye of the old man. Immediately we are introduced to a man who would never hurt a fly. The narrator of the story even goes so far as to say he loved the old man. This old man is portrayed as one who would do anything for you. However, the caretaker of the old man has one small problem with the old man. The eye that darn evil eye! What could cause a person to become enragedRead More The Bluest Eye - Pecola as a Victim of Evil Essay2026 Words   |  9 PagesThe Bluest Eye - Pecola as a Victim of Evil      Ã‚   By constructing the chain of events that answer the question of how Pecola Breedlove is caste as a pariah in her community, Toni Morrison in The Bluest Eye attempts to satisfy the more difficult question of why. Although, unspoken, this question obsessively hovers over Pecola throughout the novel and in her circular narrative style Morrison weaves a story that seeks to answer this question by gathering all of the forces that were instrumental inRead MoreEvil is In the Eyes of the Beholder: The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne1611 Words   |  7 Pagesthe wrong thing. They break the rules and do things their way. Everyone is classified in one group or the other, and is always thought to be good or bad. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pearl is evil. Pearl is doomed from the beginning to be evil. â€Å"In giving her existence, a great law [is] broken.† (80) Pearl’s evilness is ultimately credited from her roots. Hester’s sin caused Pearl to be corrupt even before she was born. As a punishment to her mother, Pearl hasRead MorePsychological Interpretation Of Conflict On The Eye Of Staub And Overcoming Evil1361 Words   |  6 Pagespeople have their own personal standard for themselves as well as the state they live in, known as relative deprivation. When standards are not met, there is opportunity for conflict. An important term that helps define conflict in the eye of Staub and Overcoming Evil is pseudo-transcendency. Pseudo-transcendency is the basic frustration that needs aren’t being me in society resulting in an individual to act out of self-interest, extreme beliefs, or violent, criminal activities (Staub, 2011). SourcesRead MoreEvil, By Robert M. Adams, James Cain And Richard Hauser On The E yes Of The Beholder1474 Words   |  6 PagesEvil is in the eye of the beholder, sometimes a daily reality. To present the problem of evil you must first know that evil exists. Since God reveals himself as the all-powerful, all knowing and all good, how can the same God allow evil to exist and for bad things to happen to good people? Our suffering, as well as the suffering of others, vividly marks the presence of evil in our world. The majority of us struggle at one time or another in life with why evil happens to our family, friends, nationRead MoreYing Yang Symbol1120 Words   |  5 Pagesphenomenon.† In Alexia Amvrazi’s essay discussing the Evil Eye symbol, she presents all aspects of the symbol including what it is used for, who uses it, and why it is used. She explains that the Evil Eye is â€Å"a glance believed to have the ability to harm those on whom it falls† and can take place at any given time from any given person. (Amvrazi). The primary purpose of both, Where Does the Yin Yang Symbol Come From? and The Eyes Have It: Evil Eye in Greece, is to inform the reader of both the meaningRead More Edgar Allen Poes The Tell-Tale Heart and the Symbolism of the Eye1221 Words   |  5 Pageshousemates eye, that he (I am assuming this sexless character is male) thinks the only solution is to resort to cold-blooded murder. Poe incorporates the symbol of the old mans eye in The Tell-Tale Heart, which has both physical and psychological meaning, it also helps to develop the plot and central conflicts in the story. The eye allows a better understanding of the narrators mental state, represents an omniscient/fatherly figure, and helps illustrate the theme of good verses evil. TheRead MoreSymbolism in Edgar Allen Poes The Tell-Tale Heart Essay863 Words   |  4 Pagesbecause one of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it (1206). The narrator sees the man with this ghastly eye as a threat to his well being, but it is he who is a menace to his own being. He kills the man with pride only to concede to his horrific crime due to his guilt-ridden heart. His heart is empty, except for the evil that exists inside which ultimately destroys him. The narrator insists that it his duty to kill the man with the evil eye because he can