Today, we completed question #11 on the "Tell-tale Heart" question sheet. Then, we discussed how the story had both escapist and interpretive elements. Finally, we looked at the two most salient symbols: the evil eye (blind, horrible, empty) and the beating heart (loud, insistent, tormenting). They eye represents the evil "I" of the narrator who is horrible, empty of compassion and blind to the evil within himself. The heart represents his guilt which is also loud, insistent and tormenting.
The first person point of view is very important to this story. The narrator's personality is expressed through diction and syntax. Look up these two words if you do not know them and find an example of each from the story which expresses the narrator's personality.
