The Tell-Tale Heart Analysis

     The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story written by Edgar Ellen Poe and published in January, 1843. In this short story, presumably, a man who is the narrator murders an old man because the old man possess a blue vulture-like eye that frightens the man. It took the narrator seven nights to prepare his plan to murder the old man but on the eighth night, he woke the old man in his sleep. Consequently, the old man was awake and his vulture eye was open which provoked the narrator to murder him. During the night, he murders the old man and dissembled his body so he could hide it under the floorboards of the old man's chamber. The next day, police arrived at the scene of the crime because a neighbor reported to them that there was a shriek next door in the previous night. When the police searched the house, they were convinced that it was the narrator shrieking in his dreams the night before. As time progresses, the narrator began to hear the old man's heart beating under the floorboard so he confessed to having murdered the old man and hid his body under the floorboards which concludes the story.

     After performing some research on this story, it seems that the narrator of the story  is trying to retell the murder in order to prove that he is not insane. At the beginning of the story, he mentions how after having the disease, his senses of hearing were increased to prove that the disease provides him with benefits that insanity would not provide. In addition, if he is trying to prove that he is not insane, then he would have to go to prison for murdering the old man. That could mean that he might have been sent to the asylum for being insane and because he is truly becoming insane in that place, he wants to escape so he have to prove his sanity to the person who he is talking during his recall of the event.

      Also from researching about the story, this whole account could just be a manifestation of the narrator's dream. Throughout the whole story, it can be inferred that the narrator hates the old man's vulture eye and wants to kill him so if he keep thinking about it in the day, it is likely that he dreams about it at night. In addition, at the beginning, the narrator is also very nervous and in the middle, there was a shriek which could mean that the narrator just woke up from a dream and shrieked about the beating heart that was at the end of his dream.

Regret

It was a weekday similar to every other one but surprisingly on this day, I realized something that I would rather not want to talk about. No matter what I tried to do, the event would not leave my mind. If trying to forget about it does not solve the problem, then I might as well confess my sins to relief this burden on my chest.

EVERYTHING started on that unfortunate day. The clouds were blocking the sun’s rays, creating a shroud of darkness on top of the school grounds of John C. Haines School. The winds swirls the burnt leaves together into bundles similar to the prelude of an oncoming storm. After the combination of these omens, the story begins.   

It was about a partner of mine named Christian who I always work with whenever there was a project. On that day, the teacher announced a new project so I went to my partner’s home in the hope of finishing it. After the announcement, the teacher also collected our notebooks and that lead up to another peculiar event. Surprisingly, a student named Daniel that always has his notebook told the teacher that someone stole it because he remembered having it in his possession after arriving at school.

             “I think someone stole my notebook.” exclaimed Daniel.

“I think you might have just misplaced it somewhere. If you are not able to find it or redo the material that was in the notebook, you would only earn a C on grade for this quarter, Daniel, do you understand?” replied the teacher.

            “I could swear to God that I did not lose my notebook. Somebody must have stolen it and if I find out who that person is, he is going to suffer!” murmured Daniel.

Afterward, Daniel searched every corner of the classroom for his notebook but no matter where he went, there was no trace of it. Without his notebook, Daniel earned a C for that quarter, which I realized later on, would not happen if I spoke up.

Later in the afternoon at Christian’s home…

“Hey Christian, how about we start working on the project?”

 “Well why don’t we go up to my room with the computer so we could work on it” replied Christian.

            As we went up the stairs, an odd feeling appeared. As I constantly tried to shrug off the odd feeling, it did not leave me so I told myself that if something is going to happen, then I might as well just face it.

            Once we were inside his room, I notice something under one of the legs of his computer table, resembling the shape of a notebook. As I bent down and took a closer look at it, it was Daniel’s notebook. Seeing the baffled look on my face, Christian told me that my eyes were not playing tricks on me.

            “Seriously now, why did you steal his notebook, Christian? Answer me!”

“Well first of all, it was fun seeing Daniel’s depressed/angry look and I enjoy stealing things. Besides, there are other objects I have stolen too such as these two school calculators,” replied Christian as he took out two school calculators from one of his table drawers.”

 “I suggest you give those things back or would you rather want me to tell Daniel what I saw here today?” An awkward silence followed similar to the moment before the predator devours the prey.

            After a few moments, I stood up but unfortunately, my head bumped against the bottom of the table. Before I was able to recover, Christian repeatedly assaulted my stomach with his legs. In those few seconds, my stomach tightened and I coughed continuously. The pain was real but it was not the end. Before I moved my arms to protect myself, he stopped and bent his head down to my ears and hissed a few words that I would never forget.

            “If you don’t want me to hit you again like this or steal your notebooks and homework in the future, you should be obedient and never reveal what you saw today to anyone. You know I could do it and there is nothing you could do to prevent it. You got it or do I need to repeat myself?” laughed Christian.

“Okay”

            Moreover, that was the end of it. A few moments later, I stood up. If I report him, no one would believe me without prove and when I do it, he will torture me. In the end, there was nothing I could do to help Daniel so I decided to keep quiet to save myself. Without further thoughts, we quickly finished the project and I went home realizing for the first time that the partner I had worked with for every project was such a demon on the inside. His demonic aura sends shivers down my spine and I ran for home, trying to forget.       

            The next day arrive as swiftly as it went. The wind brushed against my face like swords gliding on the surface of flesh. The truth ached deep inside my heart waiting to be released but with the chains of terror binding it, it eventually became silent similar to my conscience that I threw down into the hole formed by my weakness.

            As Christian predicted, I did not confess and so as promised, nothing happened to me but Daniel acquired an unjust grade.

            Later that day, I banged my head against the wall to drown out the voice in my head. It told me what I should have done but did not do. It was my conscience and it has returned to haunt me. No matter what I do, it would not leave me alone and for the days afterward, it remained, unchallenged, in my mind. For weeks this condition lasted and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

To this day, I still remember the actions that I undertook which undermined Daniel’s grade and I wondered if I had stopped Christian that day, would he stop doing what he enjoys, or would the torment continue but this time instead of on Daniel, would it have been on me?