My Response: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
Mysterious stories are captivating!
I enjoyed reading, “The Tell-Tale Heart”. This story, to me, is like a thriller but with suspense. From the first person’s narration, “I” being the narrator tells the story of him being a caretaker of this old man. The narrator indicates, how the old man’s eye disturbed him. The narrator claims of being tempted to kill the old man to get himself away from the eye. The narrator is a man, who has a “disease” and explains his motive to have attempted a murder. The narrator happens to be the caretaker of this old man, whose one eye is pale blue. The old man owns a house and has gold and other treasures in that house. According to the narrator, the old man is a nice person. But the eye of the old man disturbed the caretaker, as if always watching over him like the eye of a vultures’. The location of the old man’s residence must have been unsafe, as per descriptions given, “the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers”. The narrator claims of himself not being a madman, yet finds him going crazy over that one eye. He is so bothered, he wants to get rid of the eye. The caretaker is driven to take the life of the old man and then consider he got rid of the eye forever. As a matter of fact, he didn’t have any valid reason to attack or murder the nice old man. Then again, he looks upon the old man and found his pale blue eye with a film over it staring at him. The caretaker was tempted to make up his mind to kill the old man. Sadly, after many attempts every night, about midnight, the caretaker very carefully makes his way into the old man’s room. The bed of the old man is heavy. Therefore, the caretaker dragged the old man to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him, and left him under it until he lost his last breath. The horror is yet to come! To cover up the murder, caretaker than, dismembered the dead body in a tub so there would be no blood left to stain. The caretaker may claim that he is not mad, but he is worse than mad! He hid the body parts underneath the flooring of the old man’s chamber. That, for him was a success in getting rid of the eye. Apparently, a neighbor had heard a shriek during the night. The police had come for an investigation in the same morning. Not to mention, the caretaker is in such relief getting over the eye, that the policemen visiting didn’t bother him. As questions were asked, the caretaker is suddenly struck by a sound. The sound kept ringing in his ears, each time louder and louder. It was the sound of a heart, beating faster and louder. The policemen happen to be unaware of that sound. The caretaker became nervous and couldn’t take that sound any longer, like he couldn’t take the eye. Finally, he confessed the killing of the old man and shows the policemen where he had hidden the body. I honestly think this caretaker had a mental disorder, like mentioned of having a disease. Maybe that was pertaining to him being a “madman”. This is truly the proof of how insanity can drag one to do horrible things.
