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Brittany Vera
Ms. Erickson
Composition 2
14 November 2020
Heightened Senses Lead to Murder
Have you ever disliked something or someone so much, you feel your life would
be better if it were alienated from your life? In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell
Tale Heart”, the antagonist resides with an old man. He claims the old man’s eye is an
evil eye and describes it as a vulture eye. He claims multiple times that he is not a
madman and tries to justify his thoughts. The main conflicts in the story are with the
antagonist vs. himself which also leads him to have a conflict with the old man. Edgar
Allen Poe has a unique style of writing which helps intensify the events which occur in
the story. His stories are often referred to as horror stories and often use dark colors
when describing certain events. Also, Edgar Allen Poe often uses items throughout his
stories which give a dark and suspenseful effect.
One of the main conflicts in the story is with the narrator himself. The narrator
often justifies himself as not a madman. However, others may beg to differ on that
statement. He claims he has over-acute senses which cause him to have pristine
hearing and eyesight. There are multiple situations in which the narrator finds himself
battling against his own senses. The climax of the story occurs when the narrator can
no longer stand the sight of the old man’s “vulture eye”. The narrator watches the man
for multiple nights and on the eighth night, the old man awakens. It is not the sight of the
eye which leads to the murder however, the narrator’s sense of hearing. When the old
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man awakes frightened, the narrator catches sight of the eye. The fear in the old man
increases and the narrator claims he can hear the increasing pounding of his old man’s
heart which ultimately lead to the murder. However, when interrogated by the police the
narrator remains chillingly calm and cooperates with them. Once the narrator starts to
“hear” the old man’s heart beating once again is what drives him to admit to the police
where the body is and the crime he has committed.
The narrator finds himself in a conflict with an old man which is strange due to
the narrator stating he did not want his money and he fancied the old man. The narrator
battles himself and his senses which causes his fascination to turn into his conflict with
the old man. The narrator would also spend mornings with the old man acting like
everything was normal and just. It can be assumed there may have been an underlying
