The tell tale heart
The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, it was first published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843.
This short story is about a man (an unnamed narrator) who took care of a wealthy elderly man. For some reason, the narrator became obsessed with the diseased eye of the old man. He associated the old man´s eye to a vulture’s eye, he felt so haunted by the Evil Eye that he decided to murder the old man. On the night, he could hear the pounding of the old man´s heart in his bedroom where the old man lay awake. As he waited by the door, he heard the beats becoming faster and faster, louder and louder. The narrator then killed the old man (silencing his heart), dismembering him and burying him under the floor boards of the bedroom.
A neighbor heard a scream and notified the police. When three policemen arrived to investigate the noise that came from the house, the narrator was very confident and invited the three policemen to search the apartment. The policemen found nothing, but then the trouble really began for the narrator. After all, he has committed the perfect crime. Suddenly, he heard a repetitive noise like the ticking of a watch. At first soft, but then the sound grew louder and louder. No one else heard it.
This sound could be an auditory hallucination or the sound of his own heart beating. The narrator was so disturbed that his guilt manifested itself in the hallucination that the man's heart was still beating under the floorboards, he could not tolerate the thumping and confessed the murder: […I admit the deed!--tear up the planks!--here, here!--it is the beating of his hideous heart...].
The Tell-Tale Heart is an example of the psychological story. It is not clear the relationship between the old man and the narrator. In some parts of the short story is possible to notice that the narrator has psychological problems The frenetic diction of the