Within every one of us, we have small imperfections that are capable of killing people. While many try to improve their flaws, others allow them to dominate their life. Edgar Allan Poe is a fine example of these types of people. His imperfection, which is obsession towards alcohol, influenced and controlled his stories. Across his works, he examined how evil actions stem from a person’s tiniest flaws. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Prince Prospero’s arrogance leads to indifference, which is evil. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the main character’s delirium causes madness, which causes murder, a heinous act. The narrator’s alcoholic obsession, in “The Black Cat,” becomes corruption, again leading to destruction. Thus, Edgar Allan Poe depicts how …show more content…
Poe’s masterpiece introduces the narrator explaining the Evil Eye. “I [the narrator] think it was his [the old man’s] eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees -- very gradually –I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. For it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye (Poe 1).” Since the main character was delirious, he believed the “Evil Eye” is making him go crazy. “Delirium is a condition of severe confusion and rapid changes in brain function… Symptoms include disorganized thinking and changes in feeling (sensation) and perception. [The] emotions include anger (Psychology Today 1-3).” A possible reason for why the narrator is in a delusional state is because the eye might symbolize how the old man can see through the deepest fears of the narrator. The main character’s disorganized thinking is a human flaw that will affect the way he perceives the eye. Therefore, because of this minor frailty pertaining to the main character’s hallucination towards what he supposes is an “Evil Eye”, this causes the narrator’s vile doings. Eventually, this delirium grows into