“The Tell-Tale Heart” begins with the famous line “True! — nervous — very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am ?” The narrator insists that his disease has sharpened, not dulled, his . He tells the tale of how an old who lives in his has never wronged him. For an unknown reason, the man’s cloudy, pale blue has incited in the narrator. Whenever the old man looks at him, his turns cold. Thus, he is determined to him to get rid of this curse.

Again, the narrator argues that he is not mad. He claims the fact that he has proceeded cautiously indicates that he is . For a whole week, he has snuck into the man’s every night, but the victim has been sound with his eyes closed each time. The narrator cannot bring himself to kill the man without his “Evil Eye.” On the eighth , however, the man springs up and cries “Who’s there?” In the dark room, the narrator waits silently for an . The man does not go back to sleep; instead, he gives out a slight , realizing that “Death” is approaching. Eventually, the narrator shines his on the old man’s eye. The narrator immediately becomes furious at the “damned spot,” but he soon hears the of a heart so loud that he fears the will hear it. With a yell, he leaps into the room and kills the old man. Despite the murder, he continues to hear the man’s relentless .

He dismembers the and hides the body parts beneath the . There is a knock on the front door; the have come to investigate a shriek the neighbors have reported. The narrator invites them to search the premises. He blames his scream on a bad and explains that the old man is not home. The officers are satisfied but refuse to leave. Soon the sound of the heartbeat resumes, growing more and more distinct. The narrator grows pale and raises his to muffle the sound. At last, unable to stand it any longer, the narrator screams: “I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!”