why did the killer killed the old man ln the story tell tale heart? was the killer a man or a woman and what was his/her relationship with the old man? Anybody can answer these questions would mean a lot.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2003

Answers

Almie,

The answers to your questions are identical: Poe doesn't tell us explicitly. He leaves lots of clues which you can piece together any way you want, or you could just enjoy leaving it hanging in the air as an undecidable puzzle. Personally, I prefer this last option.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2003

O.K. with Daisy's answer. But the killer is surely a man. Read again the text with great attention to the genders (for substantives) used throughout... and you will find why that cannot be a she-killer...! I have already given the "grammatical" explanation here some months ago. Try to catch it by scrolling down. But I am sure you will find the answer by yourself. Good luck! Yours sincerely, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2003

First the killer describes the disturbance, the terror of his inner madness. The old man becomes something solid to cling to and fixate upon to "solve" those fears "rationally" by symbolically eliminating the cause. Unfortunately the old man has a feature to further focus the fixation, the dead eye, the "evil eye" of superstition that is the symbol of the gateway and the threat of the dark world closing in upon the boarder. By destroying that magic, that insane supernatural threat, he can both defeat his enemies(though it is only himself in truth) AND prove his rationality in a clever heroic deed.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2003

Troughout the story Poe is writing (or speaking) in second person. He reapeats that we (the audience)find him and what he has done to be insane as he recounts comitting murder then cofessing to it. He says he killed the old man whom he "loved" because of the "evil eye" the old man bore. Earlier in the story he explains that the eye "resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye with film over it". Apprently he killed the man to rid himself of the eye that made his "blood run cold". does anyone like the who?

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2004