The Old Man's Insanity

When the old man had been murdered and hid in the floorboards, the narrator thought that he had committed the perfect crime. He thought that no one would be able to figure out what had happened to the old man. The narrator might have gotten away with it, had it not been for his insanity. When the police come to check the place out after getting a call from a neighbor about a shriek, they look around but do not find anything. The narrator tells how confident he is and how sure he is that they know nothing, nor will they find anything. They would not have found out about the murder had the narrators insanity not given him away. The narrator tells us that he heard a ringing in his ears, he became pale and his head ached. At first the narrator does not know what it is, but after a length of time decides that it is the old man’s heart beating. The narrator’s insanity caused him to hear the beating sound and it caused him to believe that it was the old man’s heart. The narrator tells us, “Anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision!” (Par. 17) He could not take it anymore, he had to turn himself in, he had to get away from the beating of the old man’s heart.