Summary of Tell-Tale Heart

  The Tell-Tale Heart is a story of an insane man who plotted a murder because a pair of pale blue eyes symbolizes as "evil eyes". It begins with the narrator claiming he wasn't insane ‘‘True!—nervous—very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?’’ The narrator maintains that he is not mad. To prove his sanity, he says that he will calmly tell the reader this story. But, he has been so nervous that he jumps at the slightest sound. He can hear all the things on heaven, Earth and hell.  He tells the tale of how an old man lives in his house is kind and never wronged him. For an unknown reason, the old man’s cloudy, pale blue eye has evoked fear and madness inside the narrator. Whenever the old man looks at him, his blood turns cold. Thus, he is determined to kill him to get rid of this curse. For many nights, he crept into the old man's room to observe the old man in his sleep. Eventually, he stroked for kill. Though the old man sensed the danger, it was too late. He then decomposed the corpse and buried them under the floor. The police then came for examination and investigated the murder. Because he thought he heard the old man's hideous heart beating, he acknowledged his actions.