Who Is The Protagonist In A Tell-Tale Heart

The short story A tell-tale heart , by Edgar Allan Poe, gives the reader a look into the mind of a calculated killer that gives into his insanity. Through the narrator's obsessiveness, determination, and patience he was motivated to kill the old man with the pale blue eyes. First, the narrator was determined. The narrator became completely decided to take the old man's life and refused to let anything get in his way. The short story explains, “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degree --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” When he decided to kill the old man he became too determined to let anything get in his way. The narrator also spoke to the old man every morning and was kind to him to avoid the old man suspecting his hatred for the his eyes. The passage states, “And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into

One night while looking on the old man he placed the light of his lantern directly onto the old man's open eyes, as if by instinct. The author wrote, “ I saw it with perfect distinctness -- all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but i could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person: for I had directed my ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.” The narrator believed he instinctively led the light from his lantern because he was so obsessed with the old man’s pale blue eyes. The narrator also began hearing sounds that weren’t in fact there. Poe explains, “...now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well. Too. It was the beating of the old man;s heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.” The sound of the old man’s heart increased in the narrator's mind driving him insane until he killed the old