Tell-Tale Heart

Murder. It’s a horrible thing. But have you ever thought of what the murder does to the murderer? With all that guilt and regret eating them away like a tick to a dog? In the story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe the man in the story commits a horrible and brutal murder, bad, but what happens after is even worse. He goes completely insane. He kind of is a freaky creeper guy that is really scary. But I can’t blame him I guess, imagine being in a house and the only person that was living with you, was just killed by you and now you get to just sit there in complete utterly terrifying silence.

By now your asking well why did he kill someone, that someone being the old man he took care of. Well the man believed that the old man had an “evil” eye, watching him and sucking the life out of him, watching him trying to drag him to hell. So at believing this the old man was slaughtered. His remains were put under the floor boards sfter is he seased to ever even have existed. But then the man says how he kept saying he was hearing this heart beat get louder and louder. Just beat, beat, beating. Him thinking it was some force and the old man coming back to get him or something. But in the end I believe that this whole story is to ironic to be true and maybe that falls with the mode of literature or maybe this story was all just a dream. Also it could have been real and just all the guilt and loneliness and regret was just getting to him and he couldn’t take it. So there lies the question crazy or not? Well in my opinion no, he wasn’t crazy he was just having a major meltdown because he couldn’t live with what he did and it was to much for him to handle. He was fading away into the darkness where no one ever dare to roam.

Through the story though you can see some things coming if you just look at the symbolism. For example when the man is coming down from the stairs to open the door for the police, that could symbolize a fall in power or that something bad is going to happen a fall in happiness per say. Toward the end of the story the “heartbeat” of the old man was just pounding and pounding and got louder and louder he couldn’t stand it and he confessed to the police. I think that it was once again just guilt getting to him and eating him away inside, so then he finally went crazy. One more example is the silence in the house after the murder was committed could symbolize his loneness and that he needs somebody to comfort him. And this could have led to regret which made him feel guilty and sad resulting in the confession to the police.

But either way think about it, what if you were in that situation what would you do? Like him I think personally I would go mad and end up confessing. Especially because I hate silence and I never like to be alone. The moral to the story is obviously don’t commit murder. But most importantly just confess to your wrongs right away it will end the guilt won’t get to you. Just make good decisions and be the best person you can be. Just imagine living with only one persona and that person you just killed and having to just sit there in complete udder terrifying silence.