The Tell-Tale Heart Response

The Tell-Tale Heart is a very well known story written by Edgar Allan Poe. In it, the main character (the narrator) does not like his housemate's (the old man) eye. The old man has a

"vulture's eye" So the narrator sneaks into the old man's bedroom every night to see his eye.

This is until one day, he also starts hearing the old man's heartbeat. The narrator (already insane) is driven mad by this and kills the old man. He covers up the murder and hides the body.

Later there is a noise complaint and the police come over to the narrator's house. The police question the narrator and he even gets a little overconfident and sits the police right over where the old man is buried. Then, the narrator starts "hearing" the old man's heartbeat. He goes insane and admits to

Poe uses the old man's death to make the narrator insane again. When he is being interviewed, the narrator claims he can "hear" the old man's heart, even though it's not possible since he is dead. The reader can infer that he is in fact, hallucinating. He claims the police are mocking him, when they are actually just sitting there talking. The narrator can break any second. Poe makes the sentences shorter so the effect of what's going on is faster. This

Ochoa 3 causes a rush of what's going to happen next. The narrator then confesses to the murder and is arrested. Edgar Allan Poe used intriguing techniques to develop the story, and the central ideas in the story. Using repetition to develop madness and obsession makes The Tell-Tale Heart brilliant. Then using a faster paced story to manipulate speed shows accuracy on what the narrator in the story was thinking. Using these techniques also helped Poe make the story more twisted, so it relates to the narrator and his behavior. Hence, him murdering his housemate over the appearance of an eye. Then the beating of the heart causes the rush and triggers the narrator to commit the murder. Poe's techniques helped develop madness, obsession, and