The Tell Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative of a genderless narrator who is taking care of an old man with a clouded, vulture-like eye. The narrator's paranoid symptoms lead to an irrational fear of the weird clouded eye. The narrator becomes so distressed by the eye, he plots to murder the old man. However, the old man's eyes are shut, hiding the clouded eye, and the narrator loses the urge to kill. One night, though, the old man awakens as the narrator watches, revealing the eye. The narrator proceeds to chop the body up, and hide the pieces under the floorboards. The narrator then cleans the place up to hide all signs of the crime. The narrator, however, begins to hear a noise. This paranoia increases as the officers seem to pay no attention to the sound. The narrator loses control and confesses to killing the old man .Throughout the story the narrator insists on being sane, yet at the same time, giving the impression of serious hallucinations or paranoia, possibly caused by guilt from having murdered an elderly man.