Dynamic Character In The Tell Tale Heart

As William Shakespeare stated, “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.” Edgar Allan Poe’s horror fiction, short story, “The Tell Tale Heart”, presents a dynamic character who does something wrong and feels guilty about it later in the story. Every night the narrator, a madman, would watch over the old man he was planning to kill. On the eighth night he watched over the man, the narrator killed him and hid his body underneath the floor of the old man’s house which made him feel proud. Soon the police arrived at the house and searched it because the neighbors heard noises. The narrator had no worries he would get caught, he knew the old man was hidden securely. But, while the police interrogated the narrator, he heard a sound that no one else heard, the sound of the dead old man’s heartbeat. This sound overwhelmed and traumatized the narrator and he admitted to the deed he had done because of the guilt he had felt from killing the old man and lying about it. An analysis of the dynamic character like the narrator of the story, “The Tell Tale Heart”, illustrates the central theme of the story, causing trouble and doing the wrong thing will overwhelm you and make you feel guilty.
At first, the narrator wanted to kill the old man, showing that he is a madman. The narrator despised the old man because of the …show more content…
At first, the narrator wants to kill the old man and thinks that it is a marvelous idea. Then, the narrator is satisfied about killing him and feels proud of himself. Finally, the narrator feels guilty that he killed the old man because the sound of his heart beat overwhelmed the narrator. This shows the narrator is a dynamic character because his feelings are constantly changing throughout the story. What the narrator doesn’t realize is that karma does not have a menu, you get served what you