The Tell-tale heart analysis

The Tell-Tale Heart
By, Edgar Allen Poe

Quote:
" I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye 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." page 1

This quote is significant because not only does it introduce and magnify the narrator's fixation on the old man sickly eye, but also informs the reader that solely because of the eye, the narrator has chosen to take the life of the old man. This then brings the reader to the all important question of what is it about the eye that disturbs the narrator so. Well from this quote the reader can gather that the eye is diseased,  sickly, sickly, or blinded, for there is a film over it. In addition the narrator characterizes the eye  as one of a vulture- a bird which feeds off dead and dying  carrion.  A probable reason of why the old man's eye would have disturbed the narrator so would be if the narrator was the victim or his own disease, for he states in the beginning that, "the disease had sharpened his senses-not destroyed-not dulled them". Therefore if the narrator is ill and possibly dying then maybe the looking at the old man's  diseased eye is a striking reminder his own fragile mortality and sickly state. This reminder was maybe so powerful and  fear inducing that the narrator's "blood would run cold " every time he saw the  eye and his fear was so great that he decided to kill the old man. The reader also gets a sense that the narrator fears  the eye when the the narrator claims that  every morning after he had been stalking the old man in his sleep he would walk boldly into the old man's room and speak courageously to him. From the passage the reader can also discern that the act of plotting to kill the old man grants the narrator a strong sense of superiority, power, and control.  The readers especially sees this when narrator expresses the glee  and sense of power he experiences from stalking the old man in his sleep fro seven days without the old man ever realizing the plight he is in. This makes perfect sense if the narrator is suffering from some illness that endangers his life because anybody going through such an  experience would most likely be feeling deep despair because  their life and fate is out of their control. This could possible be why the author is so familiar with the groan of mortal terror and claims he has experienced it "many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me".However by putting the old man's life at his mercy he gains a sense of immense power. Also the fact that the old man has been touched by illness and is still alive, whilst the narrator is dying might also be a reason why the beating of the old man's heart before he kills him instills fury in the narrator.