# data[].attributes.body
"...deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!"

The man would take out his anger on the cat, and then cut out one of its eyes before he killed the cat

This can be drawn to the masonic Eye of Providence, which is an all seeing symbol, making the cat symbolize a sort of all seeing figure

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"his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it....I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever."

- The main character in Tell tale heart is haunted by this old mans 'vulture eye'. The eye is pale blue and has a film over it sounding a lot like a blind eye.

-the old man could be seen as an all seeing figure and him being scared of that figure.

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"...and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft seduced me into murder..."

After the man kills the cat, it comes back, but white instead of black. The man kills his wife and accidentally seals the cat in the wall with her in attempt to cover his crimes

The cat in the wall is described as having an eye of fire, which can be the eye of sauron, which represents influence from evil

The cat having one eye is a representation of the cat seeing the man's sins and what he has done

The man states that the cat was the reason he murdered his wife, which can be drawn to the evil symbolism of the eye of sauron that the cat possesses

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"...large and beautiful animal, entirely black..."

In freemasonry, the color black represents darkness, and black and white together represent the balance of unity.

In this story, that cat starts out as black, which represents it having a dark influence on the man

Black cats represent spirituality and have a historical connection to witchcraft

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"...but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white..."

After the man kills the cat, another cat reappears that is almost the same as his black cat, including one missing eye, but now with a splotch of white

The color white in freemasonry symbolizes light, and spiritual growth

The cat being almost the same as the man's old cat except for the spot of white in freemasonry symbolizes the connection between good and evil

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it took the main character 8 days to kill the old man and when he did it was at 4 am when the police come. the number 4 in Freemasonry is that it symbolizes the four cardinal virtues: Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice.

the four is meaning justice in this part of the story when the police come to show justice to the main character.

"it was four o’clock—...There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police" 4 means man and the 4 elements and 4 directions. and 3 means god. There were 3 police officers that could possibly mean those three officers are heavenly father, the holy ghost, and Jesus Christ. they are showing him guilty of breaking on of the ten commandments.

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"Pluto-this was the cat's name..."

Pluto is the greek god of the dead

The cat is also black which represents darkness and the underworld, so it being named Pulto gives the cat this whole symbolism of death and the underworld

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"The whole house was blazing."

In freemasonry, fire represents life and destruction

Represents his identity being destroyed by freemasonry and him being reborn

Also could represent hell

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"The cat, I remembered, had been hung in a garden..."

gardens are symbols of the cycle of life and death

the cat being killed in a garden goes along with gardens being those symbols

the garden of Eden is a symbol of knowledge and downfall

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-In Masonic Lecture the clock represents the continuous passing of time and serves as a reminder that life is finite.

-The individual is then presented with a pair of white cotton gloves, which they must put on in the presence of other members of the lodge. This act symbolizes their willingness to accept and respect the principles and ideals upon which Freemasonry is based.

"A watch’s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine... such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton"

-it was normal for Poe to say a watch or clock once but when he brings it up multiple times in the story it gets a little suspicious.

-in free masonry cotton symbolizes the willingness to accept the principles and idelas of freemasonry. so a watch in cotton may mean

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"I determined to wall it up in the cellar - as the monks of the middle ages are recorded to have walled up their victims."

There is symbolism behind freemasonry and being buried in walls and floor boards and concealing them to look untouched

This shows the dangers of knowledge and pride

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" First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs. I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings."

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Amontillado symbolizes pleasure and enjoyment, but because of the Amontillado he's fell for Montressors tricks leading him to his death.

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hes buried behind this statue in the wall

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"One night, returning home, much intoxicated..."

The man cuts one of the cats eyes out while he is drunk

In this story, the alcohol represents temptation and sinning, a downfall, ect.

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"his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it....I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever."

he's talking about the eye color multiple times that really makes it stands out

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" Putting on a mask of black silk, and drawing a roquelaire closely about my person" Masks often represent departed ancestors and spirit beings. The main character takes his victim into the catacombs which symbolize death and lost spirts.

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"At lenght, for the third or fourth time, they descended into the cellar."

4!!! AGAIN

3 symbolizes strength and the three pillars

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"It was now midnight, and my task was drawing to a close. I had completed the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth tier. I had finished a portion of the last and the eleventh; there remained but a single stone to be fitted and plastered in."

-Midnight represents the height of the unconscious powers in the world and Catacombs is a symbol of Montresor's state of mind.

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"the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel." The serpent represents Fortunato begging for help while Montresor is the foot crushing him.

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The layers of bricks in The Cask of Amontillado symbolize the walls of the catacombs and deception.

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"In the next, a dozen stout arms were toiling at the wall."

the twelth degree is the "Master of Mercy"

12 is a representation of perfection

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Fourtuno is lowered to his death by an iron chain. Chains are symbolic of order and symbolize an unbreakable oneness.

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"I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight"

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"Putting on a mask of black silk..."

black represents darkness and evil, unknown

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" a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself,"

seeing=kowing, can't see goodness/god

blind to the world -can't see what he needs to see

(ONE EYE: eye of province) eye of knowledge

-pride: knowlege=god

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"the spirit of PERVERSENESS."

his downfall was alcohol.

Poe was an alcoholic

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"the vile haunts"

black cats are symbolically representative of witches

the man says that he is haunted by alcohol and the cat, alluding to the supernatural

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"Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not"

in the stories both of the main characters keep on saying that they are not mad.

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"Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this?"

in the Tell tale heart the main character was trying to defend himself while telling the story how he killed the old man because of his scary eye.

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"This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree."

" Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body; but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast."

duality of black and white. cat having knowledge

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"Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body; but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white, converting nearly the whole region of its breast."

"From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition, My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions."

"...fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body and a more than fiendish malevolence, fin-nurtered, thrilled."

dangers of gnosis and the duality of man and knowledge together

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"but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye."

"shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye It was open—wide, wide open"

the old man now has the knowledge of how someone is there going to kill him or there for him.

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"Goaded...into a rage more than demoniacal."

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“Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks! here, here!—It is the beating of his hideous heart!”

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"I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree..."

TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL! the tree is in the garden

symbolizes him giving himself to sin

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"...hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin."

he ate the fruit

he gave in to the sin

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"I smiled,—for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country."

" placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim."

The main character was deceiving the police so that they don't arrest him for murder

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"as if graven in bas relief upon the white surage, the figure of a gigantic cat."

all of the walls in his house burned except for the wall with an imprint of a giant cat

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"In one of the walls was a projection, caused by a false chimney, or fireplace, that had been filled up, and made to resemble the red of the cellar."

representative of the secrecy of freemasonry and the false wall that holds secrets behind it versus the nice front that is put up

all a false front the eats you alive from the inside

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"Upon the fourth day of the assassination, a party of police came..."

4!!!!

in freemasonry 4 symbolizes justice