The Tell-Tale Heart
A Poem By Edgar Allan Poe
Beginning
The narrator talks about how the old man's eye has tortured him day and night. " He had the eye of a vulture, a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by no degrees very gradually, i made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever." The narrator continues to be persistent about the talk of killing the old man. The narrator began watching the old man at night. Every night, for eight nights, he would come exactly at midnight, but he only saw the eye closed.
Middle
The narrator began walking into the old mans room, very slowly as not to disturb the old mans sleep. The narrator's thumb slipped on the tin fastening, and the old man jumped up. The narrator stood still for almost a hour, he opened the lantern a little to see the old man, immediately the narrator saw the old mans eye. "The old mans hour had come! With a loud yell, i threw open the lantern and leaped in to the room. He shrieked once, only once. In a instant I dragged him to the floor, and dragged the heavy bed over him.
Ending
The narrator decided to hide the body in fear of any accusations. He pulled up three boards from the chamber and hid the body inside. Moments later he heard a knock at the door, it was three police officers asking about a shriek the neighbor had heard. The officers asked if they could come in and look around. The officers saw nothing out of the ordinary which was exactly what the narrator had hoped. The officers stayed for what seemed like hours to the narrator he began to get very anxious and asked them to leave, but they didn't hear him. He screamed and shouted at the top of his lungs but still no one could hear him. He began to hear a loud thump and it wouldn't stop it got louder and louder. The narrator finally confessed to killing the old man and showed them where he hid his body.