“ The Tell-Tale Heart” Interpretive Essay “He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.”(Poe, 1843) In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan, a delusional madman plans the death of and innocent old man with an “eye of a vulture” over the course of eight nights. The narrator wanted to kill the old man for only one reason, to get rid of his hideous eye. The killer is burdened with a disease in which he hears voices from heaven and hell, which is why he has a strange obsession with the victim’s eye. On the eight night, the perpetrator murdered the old man by smothering him with a heavy mattress. After the old man was stone dead, he cut his arms, legs, and head off, then buried them under the floorboards. Based on the evidence presented in the 8th Amendment of the Death Penalty, the perpetrator should …show more content…
To begin, the narrator should be sentenced to life in prison since the murder was premeditated. For instance, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man.”(Poe, 1843) This declares that the narrator made the decision, in advance, to kill the innocent old man, proving he committed first degree murder. Not only did he state that he wanted to murder the old man, he also affirmed that “every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it.”(Poe, 1843) Despite having entered the victim’s room for 8 nights and planning the kill, the murderer did not plan the exact moment he would strike him until the old man opened his eye.”It was open-wide,wide open-and I grew more furious as I gazed upon it”(Poe,1843). In that moment, the narrator decided how he would murder the old man without it being schemed. However, while he had not predetermined his method of attack he did know where he would hide the old man’s body after the event. For those reasons, the murder would be considered ‘first degree’. To back up