Posistion Paper - The Tell-Tale Heart: Interperative or Escapist Human nature is a delicate balance between good and evil. Most of the time there is an unknown balance and the evil is subdued; however, when there is a shift, for whatever reason, the dark or evil side of human nature can surface. In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", readers come across a man whose "blood runs cold" because of an old man's evil eye. …showed first 75 words of 705 total…

…showed last 75 words of 705 total…cold". The narrator repeatedly insists that he is not mad; however the reader soon realizes that the fear of this evil eye has consumed the narrator, who has now become a victim to the madness which he had hoped to escape. All these points of irony clearly convey that Poe had written this story to broaden our awareness of life and human nature which shows that this short story is an interpretive piece of writing.