Point of view in Poe’s “The Telltale Heart” Essay

Point of view is so important in Poe’s â€Å"The Telltale Heart† because Poe’s narrators are always unreliable.   The reader reads this story from the perspective of a narrator who actually kills another human being, dismembers him, and is attacked by his own guilt.   Poe chose this narrator to add chill to the story.   The narrator is insane; the old man has done nothing to him to cause this attack and is completely unprepared for it.   The story would be greatly different if told from another point of view.   The act would seem much more irrational if told by a sane person. The chrysanthemums are a symbol of Elisa’s freedom and longing to venture outside her own life.   The peddler gets these flowers because he wants to get work from her, not because he is so interested in her beautiful flowers.   She feels flattered, and he opens her world by describing the way he lives to her.   When she sees them lying on the road, her hopes of a less-defined life deflate.   He has only kept the pot, which he can resell.   They symbolize the only part of her life that she truly enjoys. Sammy quits his job because he is astounded at the way his boss treats those girls.   They come into the store and are looked down upon because they are young and pretty.   This sets Sammy up to defy authority.   He will not live his life looking down on others and following the status quo. Houses are important in â€Å"Shiloh† because houses are built on foundations.   The foundation of this marriage is slowly crumbling as the woman becomes stronger and the man becomes weaker.   Leroy wants to build a log house to disappear from the world and sink into an easier past where roles were more clearly defined.   Norma jean is becoming to modern and too strong for him. The cathedral is so important because it is such a huge and majestic structure.   It would be hard enough to describe other more mundane objects to a blind man, but a cathedral is such a monumental undertaking.   The only way the husband can describe it to Robert is by taking Robert’s hand atop his own and drawing.   In this way, the two men bond, and the husband begins to look at Robert in a whole new light.