The Tell-Tale Heart
By: Edgar Allen Poe
Summary: By Dylan Miles
The main character in The Tell Tale Heart is actually the narrator ("I was more than usually cautions in opening the door") in his story about him being driven crazy an old man's "evil eye" ("I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!") and every night for seven nights at midnight, he would go in and watch him; however, he would always find his eye closed. ("I did for seven long nights -- every night just as 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"). The only way for him to do it was to kill the old man, ("I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever") ("In and instant i dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him... He was stone dead, his eye would trouble me no more."). A couple of hours after he killed him, the police showed up claiming they had heard a scream. ("When I had made an end of these labors, it was four o'clock --still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart, --for what had I now to fear? There entered three men,") At first, he was really full of himself. He thought he had this one "in the bag". Until, he heard the heart beating, and he got nervous and confessed himself. ("It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury," ""Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!")