The Tell-Tale Heart Article Review Examples

The proposed article, “The Tell-Tale Heart” as Evil Eye Event analyzes homonymous story written by Edgar Allan Poe (“The Tell-Tale Heart”). The article itself is written by James Kirkland and published in the Southern Folklore in 1999. Kirkland examines the substrate of the reference to the Evil Eye legend that Poe introduced in his writing. In relation to this legend, the author of the article analyzes various possible interpretations of the Evil – Eye, an old man who had a strange look (possible caused by cataract and the advanced age), thought by many to bring bad luck.
Decided to learn the real intention that Poe had when he introduced the Evil Eye legend in his story, Kirkland investigates in – depth the sources of the legend, which makes his article very well documented. He informs that this legend is present in various cultures throughout the world (in Europe, America, Asia or Africa), tracing it in the works of the Ancient Greek philosophers or in various passages of the Bible.
The writing is engaging and the arguments that the author of the article exposes are comprehensive and coherent, yet still entrenched in the sensitivity and morbidity specific to Poe’s literary style. Therefore, although Kirkland has literary independence and individuality, the influence of Poe can be still sensed in his critique, as the article is sprinkled with literary formulas where Poe can be sensed, in the tensed moments where Kirkland holds the readers in suspense, just as Poe does in his stories.
Nevertheless, the review that Kirkland creates illustrates the author’s anthropologic preoccupations, as he accurately describes rituals and sociological beliefs that circulated in different societies, from Egypt to Scotland or Italy, in relation to the Evil Eye phenomena.
His writing style is vivid and colored and although he underpinned an in – depth research of legends or rituals, the author does not lack imagination. On the contrary, although he is examining Poe’s literary work, he has an incandescent descriptive power, but also a logical discourse.
Kirkland follows Poe’s main character’s reactions and gradual insanity after killing the old man and transmits that this is his natural estate, because he had been crazy even before killing the old man, and this one was just a pretext for his madness, insisting on the idea that he was charmed by the old man’s evil look.
The associations that Kirkland manages to produce, between Poe’s writing and other social concepts or legends (invoking the superstition as specific to humankind or the Medusa syndrome, which represents a human tendency of isolating or eliminating individuals on the basis that they are unnatural) indicate his creativity and his passion for legends and mythology.
The article is very fluid, describing with accuracy the symbolism behind the figures of style used by Poe in his literary piece. Kirkland mingles very artistically the colloquial credence from different cultures about the Evil Eye with the critic and literary analysis of Poe’s story, managing to create a fascinating universe that carries the readers on the wings of words that recompose the mystery behind Poe’s writing.