Poe's Short Stories

The Tell-Tale Heart

5. The two main symbols in the story are the eye and the heart. What do these symbols represent? Why are they important?

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The "vulture eye" is a symbol of death, which is important because in the old man, the narrator sees his own pending death and mortality.

The heart-beat serves as a symbol of time, as is evidenced through its associated to the ticking of a watch. This malso supports the passage of time, and the narrator's obsession with his mortality.

Source(s)

The Tell-Tale Heart