Tell-Tale Heart Actions

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How actions catch up with you in “The Tell Tale Heart”

In the short story “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, readers learn that all actions have consequences. In “The Tell Tale Heart” the narrator murders an old man because of the old man’s eye. Eventually the narrator is driven insane by the sound of the old man’s beating heart. The narrator confesses to the cops that he murdered the old man.One of the many events that contribute to the theme is when the narrator sneaks into the old man's room. The author uses many descriptive details to describe how dark the old man's room is.The narrator says “his room is as black as a pitch with the thick darkness.”(Poe 2) This means that even though the narrator was in the room the it was so …show more content…
The narrator sneaks into the old man's room drags the old man to the floor and drops a bed on him, crushing him. The author uses many sensory details to show how loud the old man screamed. The old man sprang up in bed crying out who’s there(Poe 3) that action leads to the consequence of the narrator being arrested.

One final action that contributed to the theme is when the narrator confesses to the cops-who were called by the neighbor- about killing the old man, the only reason the narrator confessed was because of the old man's heartbeat. The narrator could still hear it and it was driving him insane. The narrator said,“...but the noise arose over all and continuously increased.” this shows how the sound of the heart was driven insane

While some might argue that the narrator's thoughts caused his actions the text actually shows that the narrator thought he could get away with murder, but his actions caught up with him and he got arrested, thus showing that your actions will always catch up with you. This better shows why he confessed because his actions caused him to be nervous, which caused him to hear the old man's heart beat ultimately leading to him confessing about killing the old man. The idea that the thoughts cause bad actions does not account for why the narrator invited the police into the room where he hid the old man. The narrator did not think about
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