Tell Tale Heart Essays (1394 words) - The Tell-Tale Heart

Tell Tale Heart TRUE!---- nervous---very,--- very dreadfully nervous I had been -- and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses- not destroyed - not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in heaven and on earth. I heard many things below the earth. How, then am I mad? Harken! and observe how healthily, how calmly I can tell you the whole story. It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day --and night. Object---- there was none. Passion-------there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think-----it was--------his eye. Yes! it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture.-----a pale blue eye------with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold. And so, by degrees------very gradually---I made up my min to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of that eye-------forever. Now this is the point. You fancy me Mad. Madmen know nothing! But you should have seen me! You should seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded-----with what Caution---with what foresight---with what dissimulation I went to work. I was never kinder to the old man than during that the whole week before I killed him. And every night-----About midnight----I turned the latch of his door and opened it---Oh so gently. And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly-very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha!-would a madman have been so wise as this? And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously-oh, so cautiously - for the hinges creaked. I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights-every night just at midnight-but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he had passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept. Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute-hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers-of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea; and perhaps the heard me; for he moved on the bed suddenly, as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back-but no. His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness, and so I know that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily. I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man spring up in the bed, crying out-?Who's there? I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed, listening: just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death-watches in the wall. Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or grief-oh,-no!-it was the low stifled