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The Guilt Of Death In Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart

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“Harken! and observe how healthily - how calmly I can tell you the whole story.”(Poe 1) To explain this quote in detail the narrator is explaining to the reader that he is able to explain his thinking while planning the murder. In this short story the caregiver of an old man believes that he wants to kill the old man to rid himself of the old man’s vulture eye. Furthermore when the police come to check up on him he creates convincing lies to declare his innocence, but shockingly later he confesses to the murder, because of his guilt. In Tell-Tale heart by Edgar Allan Poe the narrator is sane and guilty of murder because, he pre-planned killing the old man, he was fully aware and conscious of what he was doing, also the narrator was extremely cautious and smart about killing the old man and hiding the body. …show more content…

The narrator states that, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever”(Poe 2). In this sentence the reader begins to understand that the narrator wants to kill the old man over the small feature of his eye. The old man 's vulture eye is the only thing bothering him, and is the only reason he decided to kill him. If the narrator had been insane he would not have taken careful thought to kill the old man. If a person is insane it is a flash decision where they do not have control over their actions and are unaware of what they are doing. Clearly the narrator premeditated the murder because he was well aware that he was going to kill the old

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