![]() the guilty soul cannot keep its own secret. True it is, generally speaking, that “murder will out”. No eye has seen him, no ear has heard him.Īh! Gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. He retreats, retraces his steps to the window To finish the picture, he explores the wrist for the pulse! Heįeels for it and ascertains that it beats no longer! The deed is done. Of this, he moves the lock, by soft andĬontinued pressure, till it turns on its hinges without noise and he enters, and beholds his victim before him With noiseless foot he paces the lonely hall Deep sleep hadįallen on the destined victim. The circumstances now clearly in evidence spread out the whole scene before us. The deed was executed with a degree of self-possession and steadiness equal to the wickedness with Paroxysms of crime, as an infernal being, a fiend, in the ordinary display and development of his character. Picture in repose, rather than in action not so much an example of human nature in its depravity, and in its Let him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon a Hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it. Truly, here is a new lesson for painters and poets. Victim of a butcherly murder, for mere pay. The following are pertinentĪn aged man, without an enemy in the world, in his own house, and in his own bed, is made the was published as a pamphlet at Salem during the year. Webster was employed as a special prosecutor, and Knapp was convicted. The criminals were apprehendedĪnd Crowninshield committed suicide, but Knapp wasīrought to trial July 20 to August 20, 1830. Jr., of Danvers, to rob and kill Joseph White of Salem on the night of April 6, 1830. The chief inspiration was a description byĭaniel Webster of a real crime committed in Massachusetts, when John Francis Knapp employed Richard Crowninshield, If Poe needed no special source for his main idea, he based his plot on two literary sources that canīe pointed out with confidence, for there is evidence that Poe saw them. Did the protagonist go mad before heįancied the old man had the Evil Eye - or did a real Evil Eye drive the young man mad? Most readers suppose that The author carefully leaves unanswered the question of how much is hallucination. In the story, the veiling of the eye is probably symbolic, although anyĭeformation of an eye is widely regarded with apprehension.Īlthough Poe's narrator tells a plain and simple story, which leaves no doubt that he is mad, Wicked, for many people (for example, in Hungary and Sicily) think it may be unwillingly acquired, and some kindly menĪvoid looking at other people intently. It should be remembered that a man who possesses the Evil Eye need not be Negroes in South Carolina (as I was reminded by my student, Harriet Holman) sometimes carry a horse chestnut (a He probably heard of the Eye at first hand while he was stationed at Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, since In this case it is theĮvil Eye - something feared in so many parts of the world that it seems fruitless to seek an exact source for It is one of the series of Poe's tales founded on popular superstitions. ![]() It preserves the unities completely, and is often read as a dramatic monologue. Since it is an uninterrupted speech of the protagonist, This story is a supreme artistic achievement.
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