Overview

Once again, your postings on the online forum have made for an insightful, stimulating discussion.  In this case, it seems, we generally agree on the basic meaning of the story, but each participant in the discussion has illuminated various corners of the work.  For example, Starlet and Stephanie both make excellent cases for the narrator's insanity, supporting their interpretations with appropriate details.  Ben makes a similar observation about the story's narrator, suggesting that he turns into a "Mr. Hyde" when the subject of the evil eye comes up.  I think you may be on to something, Ben, but I would like to see some examples of his deranged behavior and language when he mentions the eye.  Ben's observation raises the question of why the eye so disturbs the narrator.  Kate suggests that the eye's association with the soul is significant, and I agree with Melanie that the eye's association with surveillance is also important.  Furthermore, I agree with Becky and Eileen, who connect the eye with a conscience.  We might even argue that the "Evil Eye" symbolizes a conscience.  That is, as Crystal suggests, perhaps the narrator feels guilty about something that he has done and thus hates anything that seems to watch and note his behavior.  By the way, I have never analyzed the dismemberment in the story to the degree that Crystal and Jacob do in their insightful essays, but I love their interpretations!  Both work beautifully to explain the narrator's gruesome actions.  The allusion to the "damned spot" helps to set up this theme of guilt.  Although you make an interesting case that the allusion is to one of Poe's own stories, Susan, I think the real source is Shakespeare's play Macbeth.  Unlike "The Fall of the House of Usher," Shakespeare's play actually refers to these words exactly in Lady Macbeth's line: "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" (5.1.39).  Here Lady Macbeth, who eventually goes insane, refers to what she perceives as blood on her--evidence that she has been party to the murder of King Duncan.  Thus, Poe's allusion carries the associations of madness, murder, and obsessive guilt.

While the narrator's guilt or even paranoia may be the reason for his murder of the old man, we may wonder also why he tells this story.  Indeed, we may even wonder who his audience is.  Is he writing this account for posterity, confessing to the police in an interrogation room, or--as one of the students in my 8 a.m. class suggested--talking to a cellmate about his crime?  We do not know.  Whatever the context, we can speculate on his reasons, and I agree with Starlet and Vonti, who both suggest that the narrator is trying to defend his actions--perhaps even, as Vonti writes, "gain allies."  Note, however, the incongruity of his words.  He tries to argue that he is not mad by showing how intelligent and deliberate he was in committing the crime.  We realize, though, that insane people do not "know nothing," as this narrator argues; indeed, serial killers sometimes have above-average intelligence, and the Unabomber had an advanced degree.  Thus, as he argues that he is not insane, this narrator actually provides evidence of his insanity: faulty reasoning.  Jennifer Baker nicely sums up this irony when she says: "While he is telling the story and explaining how he is not a madman, he is explaining how he is a madman."  In fact, the speaker in this story is a classic example of the "unrealiable narrator"--that is, a narrator who cannot be trusted.  Once you think of this narrator in these terms, you may want to read the entire story again and consider how much of the narrator's account you can actually trust.  Although the narrator says he heard the old man's heart beating, for example, it is also possible that he heard his own heart beating, as Starlet says.

I agree with Misty and Monica that the story may reflect aspects of Poe's own life.  In particular, Poe indulged in a lot of self-destructive behavior during his life--often embarrassing himself in front of people who could help him, for example.  Similarly, the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" brings about his own downfall, as Theotis and Andy suggest.  Nevertheless, we have to be careful that we do not see the narrator and Poe as the same person.  Short stories, such as "The Tell-Tale Heart," are examples of fiction, which by definition is untrue.  Thus, while Poe tells his short story with the first-person point of view, we should not assume that he experienced the incidents that his narrator recounts, though he might have experienced similar feelings.