The TellTale Heart 读后感.docx

The TellTale Heart 读后感The Feeling after Reading The Tell-Tale Heart The man loves the old man who lives with him, but he can't stand the old man's eyes, so he killed and dismembered the old man. Finally, the old man's heart revealed the secret and the man had to confess." This is the storyline of The Tell-Tale Heart. The story is very simple, but the implication is profound. The depiction of heart and eye in the novel is exactly significant. The fixation on the old man's vulture-like eye forces the man to concoct a plan to eliminate the old man. The man confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye: "Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - very gradually - I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever". The man begins his tale of betrayal by trying to convince the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the man indeed is out of control. The fact that the old man's eye is the only motivation to murder proves the man is so mentally unstable that he must search for justification to kill. In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye. The man shows his contrariety when he confesses he loves the old man, but he is still too overwhelmed by the pale blue eye to restrain himself from the all-consuming desire to eliminate the eye. His struggle is evident as he waits to kill the old man in his sleep so that he won't have to face the old man when he kills him; but on the other hand, the man can't justify the killing unless the vulture eye was open. The man is finally able to kill the man because "I saw it with perfect distinctness - all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot". The mission of the man begins with meticulous planning and confidence, but ultimately his guilty conscience creates his downfall. For seven days, the man watches the old man while he sleeps and he even "chuckled at the idea" that the old man knows nothing of the man's "secret deeds or thoughts". The man's comments show his confidence and audacity, even pride, in his plan to kill: "Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers - of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph". The man's assurance in his evil deed continued even when the police came to check on the old man and investigate the loud noises neighbors heard the night before: "I smiled,-for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome". However, the man's mind is quickly consumed with guilt, which creates his delusion of hearing the old man's heartbeat taunting him from under the flooring. His paranoia makes the heart beat "louder - louder - louder!" and in his state of delirium he confesses to killing the old man in hopes of ridding his life of the menacing heartbeat: "I felt that I must scream or die! " The mans overriding confidence in killing the man ultimately turns into overriding guilt even as he justifies in his mind the savage killing, chopping up the body and placing it under the floorboards. The man's imagination creates his need and plan to destroy the eye, but it then creates the need to save himself from the heartbeat that drives him over the edge. The man's obsession with the old man's eye culminates in his own undoing as he is engulfed with internal conflict and his own transformation from confidence to guilt. The novel illustrates how man's imagination is capable of being so vivid that it profoundly affects people's lives. The manifestation of the man's imagination unconsciously plants seeds in his mind, and those seeds grow into an unmanageable situation for which is no room for reason and which culminates in murder. There are two places are well-written. One is the reason that the man murdered the old man. It means the old mans eyes. Another is the reason that the man got revenge. It means the old mans deathless and throbbing heart. These two places are really meaningful and shocking. Actually, the unusual place of the novel is the heartbeat. The author describes the heartbeat when the old man is frightened and dead. It makes people abandon the surface meaning of words and find the deep meaning. The novel is themed by death, but it is different from other novel which describes pure terror. The author renders the horrible and strange atmosphere, describes the fantastic plots and the natural fake, amazing and unbelievable world. It is reasonable to believe that the old mans eyes represent authority. And the man loves it and opposes it yet. The man discontents the authority and wants to smother it. But he was revenged by the authority finally. And the novel not only is a horrible psychological novel but also expresses the dilemma of people. The world is so irrational and helpless. The man is not suffering absolutely, and the old man is not powerful completely.