Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’

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 Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’

In Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, the narrator commits murder on the

eighth night. However he does not kill the old man during any of the first seven nights

because, the eye of the old man was always closed and since it was not the old man

that vexed him but his evil eye he could not do it. He states that, “I undid the lantern

cautiously --oh, so cautiously --cautiously (for the hinges creaked) --I undid it just so

much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long

nights --every night just at midnight --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.”

At the eigth night he finally commits the act and kills the old man. This is after

he sneaks in to his room and walks in, but suddenly he hits the tin on the lantern and

the old man wakes up. He is stratled and asks who was inside the room. The narrator

remains silent and does not move an inch for a whole hour. The old man does not

sleep and sits up on his bed giving himself excuses for the cause of the noise.

The narrator then lights the lantern a bit to produce a small ray of light and finds

the “Evil pale blue eye with a film over it” wide open. This pisses him off as his heart

beats continously and fater each second till the old man can now hear the heart beat.

The old man’s heart beat also increases fast. The narrator lets out a yell and leaped

into the room and dragged the old man to the floor and pulls the heavy bed on him

killing him instantly.

 Reference

Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’