The Tell Tale Heart Guilt Essay

Guilt.We have all felt it. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,”readers learn that if you get cocky about a clever thing you did, then the guilt could stick with you. In the story, the narrator kills the old man because of his monstrous vulture eye. While he hides the body, he thinks that he is clever and smart. He feels like he is a mastermind. Then the police came to inspect the house.The narrator hears the heartbeat of the old man’s heart (which was his guilt) getting louder. Then he finally confesses because the heartbeat got so loud. Just as the narrator is about to kill the old man, the author uses dialogue and the character’s actions to create suspense within the conflict. On page four, the narrator hears the old man’s heart beating and it is making his hesitate to kill him. Also, the narrator said “And now a new anxiety seized me-- the sound would be heard by a neighbor!’’(Poe 4) This scene shows that the heartbeat is his guilt and that he is nervous that if he kills the man that he could get caught. “It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury as the beating of the drum stimulates the soldier into courage.” (Poe 4) . In conclusion, the narrator knows it is bad to …show more content…
In the story he thought that he was clever when he is hiding the old man’s body. While this is a good claim, there are some problems with this, however. The narrator’s thoughts is not the only thing that contributed the theme. The character’s actions also contributed to the theme. Also, thinking is an action. He didn’t just think in the story he also had actions that determined the theme. For example, the narrator couldn’t have felt guilty unless he did something wrong such as killing an old man because of an eye. The claim that if you are being cocky the guilt could stick with you is an action and so is thinking. In conclusion, the narrator’s actions determined the