ENGLISH WRITTEN TASK

Rationale
The written task rest upon ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe in the year 1843. This text is
related to the part 4 of our syllabus, i.e., the critical study. The written task would be written in
the form of a police report. This format is suitable for the text as the text talks about a homicide
and the crime site and this format will explain it briefly.

The police report would be written by one of the officer present in the crime scene. The diction
used is formal as the report is to be submitted aloft. Being a police report, the tone and mood of
the text is serious. The report is meant to inform the authorities about the crime and explain
them in brief about the motive of the murder and murderer.

The font type used is suitable for the time period when the text was originally written. For the
completion of the task the name of characters and places are assumed. The report number of
the case is #171002 therefore the title for the task is ‘Incident #171002’.

Narrative
Incident- Homicide/Murder

Location- 221B Bakers Street

Date/Time Occurred

March 27,1834 00:10

Date/Time Reported-

March 27,1834 3:49

Reporting Officer- Robert Browning

Approving Officer- Nicholas Lestrange

People
S. NO ROLE NAME SEX AGE DATE OF BIRTH

1) Victim John Allan Male 65 July 11,1779

2) Witness Frances Thompson Female 60 February 14,1784

3) Suspect Charles Browning Male 25 January 19,1809

After making the confession, Charles Browning (25, male) was placed under arrest on Sunday
morning at Bakers Street for committing a murder against John Allan (65, male).

A few hours after the crime took place, a neighbour, Frances Thompson (60, female) informed
the police office that she had heard a loud shriek. Three officers were sent to investigate about
the reported premises.

Upon our arrival Charles Browning, The Suspect, came out and welcomed us. Surprisingly
everything seemed normal after observing and reconnoitring the premises. The Suspect
exclaimed that he shrieked because he saw a big rat. After a tedious search and a thorough
round of interrogation, we were quite satisfied and readily agreed that no delinquency had
taken place within the premises. The remaining of our doubts were cleared when Charles
Browning proclaimed that no jewels or money was stolen. We were led to a bedroom to have a
conversation. Everything was going quite well till Charles Browning started behaving eerily and
had a sense of discomfort. Out of the blue he swung his chair and shrieked “Villains” and
admitted his deed. We commenced removing the planks upon his request. We discovered a
dismembered dead corpse. The corpse was identified as John Allan’s (65, male). On March
27,1834 John Allan was declared dead (as in killed) because of the murder committed by Charles
Browning (25, male).

Nothing in the house seemed wrong. All the evidences were destroyed before we entered the
premises. It wouldn’t have been possible for us to conclude that Charles had committed the
crime if he didn’t confess it. The murder was well planned therefore it would be classified as a
planned homicide.

He was immediately placed under arrest for further interrogation. While our interrogation was
going on, he stated that the victim, John Allan, had never wronged Charles neither did he insult
him. He neither wanted the jewels or money of John, this explains why nothing was stolen from
the home. The reason Charles killed John was because of the old man’s eye. His eyes had some
sort of a problem (a film on his eyes). He even stated that whenever the pale blue eyes fell upon
him, his blood would run cold and thus he planned to get rid of the old man’s eyes. Just by a
look at the old man’s eye one could make out that the eyes were a little deformed. The eye has
been sent for further examination.

The complete description given by Charles Browning is as follows- I have been observing John
Allan for the past seven days. I used the lantern to look at the old man’s eyes, waiting for the
right time to kill him (when the eyes were open) and get rid of the eyes permanently. For the
first seven days I could not commit the deed because his eyes were closed, perhaps he was
sleeping. As I didn’t have any problems with him other than his eyes, so I did not kill him for the
first seven days. On the eighth night, as usual I walked up to his room and opened the door of
his room. I got excited and chuckled which awoke Charles. I waited for an hour for the old man
to sleep but there was no sign of that. I struck the ray of the lantern directly on his eye and
could not refrain myself. I walked into the room and dragged the old man to the floor and
pulled the heavy bed over him. His heart kept beating for several minutes and then it ceased. To
get rid of the corpse I cut it into pieces and placed it under the planks. I cut the corpse inside
the bath tub to ensure that no blood stains were to be spotted and that the cleaning of the
premises would also be easier.

The following statement shows that Charles was killed by suffocating him. Even the planks were
place very neatly that nothing seemed suspicious. The bathroom was washed properly not
leaving a single stain of blood anywhere.

The only aspect which seemed a little distracting is the reason presented by John for accepting
his crime. He stated that he heard the beating of heart of the victim which drove him to utter
madness. He finally confessed the deed when he no longer could stand the voice of it. However,
the other two officers and I did not hear anything of such kind. This could mean that John might
have suffered some mental disorder. Thereby I appeal that this case should have a thorough
investigation again.