preview

The Tell-Tale Heart, And Ligeia, By Edgar Allan Poe

Decent Essays

After reading the various short stories written by Edgar Allan Poe, it is clear he had a fascination with eyes. An eye can tell a lot about a human because it is the tunnel in which life enters the brain, creating the person’s personality, memories, and morals. The quote above is from “The Tell-Tale Heart” and illustrates Poe’s love for eyes and the gateway they provide into the perception we have not only of ourselves, but others as well. Through his short stories “The Black Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “Ligeia,” Edgar Allen Poe emphasizes the importance of eyes and the role they play within the human and animal life. Throughout “The Black Cat,” Poe writes of a mad man who tortures his cat which he claims to have loved dearly. At the …show more content…

Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work! …show more content…

For eyes we have no models in the remotely antique. It might have been, too, that in these eyes of my beloved lay the secret to which Lord Verulam alludes. They were, I must believe, far larger than the ordinary eyes of our own race. They were even fuller than the fullest of the gazelle eyes of the tribe of the valley of Nourjahad. Yet it was only at intervals—in moments of intense excitement—that this peculiarity became more than slightly noticeable in Ligeia (113).
This quote describes the narrator’s take on Ligeia’s eyes and how he is astonished by their allure. Every time the eyes are spoken of, the narrator seems to be taken over by a spell. As the story continues, Ligeia’s large eyes create a symbol of the superstitious side to the narrator because he is so fascinated with their unnatural size. This causes the narrator to question whether or not Ligeia is human or a form of mystic. The link between “Ligeia” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” is due to the ways Poe writes about the effects the eyes have upon the narrators. As mentioned before, Ligeia’s eyes cast a spell upon the narrator who feels like he is in a trance whenever her eyes grow larger. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator is terrified the eyes may take over the old man and his own souls as

Get Access