The Tell-tale Heart
In the Tell-tale Heart, the narrator is trying to convince the reader that he is not insane. He gives the story as proof that he is not. However all the story really does is make the reader see how completely insane he actually is.
The narrator tells the story of an old man, whom he claims to love, except for his offending "horrible" eye, which is described as being pale blue with a film over it. The narrator goes to the old man's room each night at midnight to kill him, but the old man has his eyes closed. The narrator can't kill the old man when his eyes are closed because he doesn't have a problem with the man, only with the eye.
On the eighth night, the old man wakes up when the narrator enters the room. The old man screams, and the narrator kills him. He dismembers the old man's body and hides him beneath the floor boards.
A neighbor reported hearing a scream to the police, and they show up to investigate. The narrator tells them that he screamed in his sleep, and that the old man is out of town. As he sits and talks to the police, he begins to hear a ticking sound, and is convinced that the sound is the old man's heart beating beneath the floor boards. He freaks out and confesses his crime to the police, directing them to the old man's body and telling them that the sound he hears is his heart.
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