"The Tell-Tale Heart" shows the precision of Edgar Allan Poe's horror. In this book there is never any mention of the main characters name. The only title given is to the old man whom the mad-man kills. .
The book starts out with a man professing to the reader of how he is not truly a mad-man. He continues to say how no one as clever and intelligent as he was could be mad. After the brief introduction of his insanity, the mad-man continues his tirade on how the old man in his apartment complex has an evil eye that he can't stand to look at. He begins to plot a murder for the old man. He explains again that he has nothing against the old man, it is just his eye that he can't stand. Eventually, the mad-man begins to develop his plot against the old man. He begins sticking his head through the old man's door at midnight and watching him. He takes a lantern and opens the light shade just enough to where he can get a direct ray of light on the man's evil eye while he is sleeping. He does this for several nights to build up his confidence of his upcoming murder plans. He continues to profess his innocence of being a mad-man. He comments that a mad-man would not make this k!.
ind of well thought out plan. As he continues to carry out his preparatory plans for the murder, he grows bolder and bolder every time he sneaks into the old man's room. However, as the time for his murder comes closer, he feels he can't commit the murder unless he sees the man's eye. He says that it is the eye he wants to kill, not the man. Finally, the mad-man sneaks into the man's room, awakens him for a moment, the man becomes nervous and starts to think of what the noise was that he heard. As the man lays back down, the mad-man tells himself that it is time, so he makes a quick move toward the man that causes him to sit up alert, the mad man jumps on him and suffocates him with his bed. The man was able to manage a shriek before he was buried under the mattress.