In "The Tell-Tale Heart," why does the narrator kill the old man?

In the second paragraph of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the wholly unreliable narrator—who, despite his protestations to the contrary, is clearly insane— explains his reason for killing the old man who lives in the house with him.

"It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain," the narrator writes, "but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. " The narrator begins by writing that he had no reason, no "object," for killing the old man, even while he explains why he killed him.

"Passion there was none," he writes, although, as the story unfolds, it's apparent that he's passionate about killing the old man who he also admits he loves but whose declaration of love is negated by the fact that he kills him.

The narrator notes, "He had never given me insult," although it's evident from his act of killing the old man that the narrator took offense at something that prompted the narrator to kill him.

I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

There it is. The reason that the narrator kills the old man is to rid himself of what he later calls the old man's "Evil eye."

Or is it the reason he kills him?

As the story unfolds, the narrator seems to forget about the old man's "Evil eye," his "vulture eye," and becomes increasingly obsessed with the old man's beating heart. At first, the old man's heart makes just a "low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton," but the sound of the old man's beating heart grows increasingly louder, to a "hellish tattoo," and the narrator becomes increasingly terrified and increasingly furious at the sound.

But the berating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me—the sound would be heard by a neighbour!

It's virtually impossible that a neighbor would hear the old man's beating heart, but with that irrational thought in his mind, and with the uncontrollable rage he feels toward the old man's beating heart, the narrator leaps out of hiding and into the old man's room. He drags the old man to the floor, and pulls his heavy bed over him, crushing and suffocating him. It's only then, after the old man's heart stops beating and he's dead, "stone dead," that the narrator again mentions the old man's "Evil eye."

His eye would trouble me no more.

Ridding himself of the old man's "vulture eye" might have provided the initial motivation for the narrator to kill him, but it seems more like an afterthought now that the old man is dead. It's the old man's beating heart which ultimately enrages the narrator to such an extent that he commits murder, and it's the beating of the old man's heart that the narrator hears even after the old man's death that ultimately leads him to shout out his confession of the murder.

After all, Poe titled the story "The Tell-Tale Heart," not "The Evil Eye."

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," why does the narrator kill the old man?

Simply put, the narrator is crazy. A more developed answer might be, the narrator is unbalanced. Because he thinks he can hear the old man's heart, he thinks others can too. Therefore, he kills the old man to protect himself from being discovered. This can be seen in this passage: " But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me—the sound would be heard by a neighbour!"

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," why does the narrator kill the old man?

This is a straightforward question which even the narrator cannot answer with clarity. He isn't sure how the idea of murder first came to him and admits that he "loved the old man." The old man had never committed any transgressions against the narrator, and he didn't want the man's money.

The narrator seems to stumble upon his reasoning for murder almost by accident:

I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.

With the narrator's inclusion of thinking it was the eye that drove him to murder, followed by the exclamation, it seems that he is trying to convince himself of his motives. Of course, people don't murder others because of an odd-looking eye, so all of this together can only mean one thing: the narrator is not mentally stable.

Therefore, the real reason for murder is that these are the actions of an insane man. Although he tries to convince his audience from the first lines that he is sane, there is no support for sanity in his actions. In fact, his subconscious eventually catches up with him in the end, and he admits to the murder because he is convinced that the heart of the man he has dismembered beats loudly underneath the floor where he is hidden.

The narrator's unstable mental abilities are the ultimate source of his desire to murder a man whom he claims he loved.

What led the narrator to confess his crime in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

His protestations aside – “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? . . . How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story” – the narrator of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart is clearly mentally disturbed.  Beyond these opening qualifications regarding his mental state, the narrator’s obsession with the old man’s eye, described in frightening detail (“One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold . . .”) provides an early indication that his emotional well-being has been seriously jeopardized, and that his judgment may be impaired.  That, combined with Poe’s reputation and body of work, are all the clues we need to suggest that the “protagonist” of The Tell-Tale Heart is anything but sane.  His act of cold-blooded murder, also meticulously described, along with the actions taken to conceal the old man’s remains, are entirely consistent with that of a mentally disturbed individual, especially when the motive for that murder, the otherwise benevolent old man’s eye, is factored into the equation.  The narrator makes a point of noting his fondness for the old man’s nature (“I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult”), but proceeds to describe his obsession with that eye, and how he planned and executed the murder solely for the purpose of being rid of that eye. 

Basically, we are, by the end of the story, given sufficient information regarding the narrator’s state of mind to conclude that his mental state is seriously impaired.  Given the suggestion of “criminal insanity,” then, anything that follows need not necessarily constitute rationalism from a conventional point of view.  The narrator confesses to his crime because he is convinced that he can hear the beating of the old man’s heart beneath the floor boards where he had concealed the evidence of his crime, and that the visiting police officers must also hear it – a mistaken notion borne of the narrator’s psychopathy, as evident in the following passage, in which he describes his growing anxiety at the constant beating from beneath the floor:

“Yet the sound increased—and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath—and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly—more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations, but the noise steadily increased.”

The narrator’s mental instability is proving his undoing, as his conscience has him convinced that the heart is, indeed, beating and giving away his secret.  The increasing sound to which he alone is privy exists solely in his mind, of course, but is sufficient to compel his exclamation of guilt: “I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!”  The narrator confesses because he is insane, and because he is convinced that inexplicable events have conspired against him and forced his revelation of murder.

Why does the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" confess to his crime?

On the surface, the narrator confesses to his crime of murdering the old man and burying him under the floorboards for two reasons. First, he hears the very loud sound of the man's heart beating, and it is driving him to distraction. Second, and more importantly, he is convinced that the police hear it, too, and are simply playing with him and pretending not to. He feels that pretending not to hear the sound is a way of mocking and humiliating him. He writes:

And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!—no, no! They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a mockery of my horror!—this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer!

But beyond the distraction of the noise and the mockery he imagines, the beating heart represents the narrator's intense sense of guilt that he feels over having killed the old man simply for having had an "evil eye." Clearly, unless we are stepping into the realm of the supernatural, a dead man's heart cannot be beating. And nobody's heart beats so loudly that it can be heard throughout a room.

The narrator is among authority figures—the police—whom he has deceived. He has won. Subconsciously, however, the guilt he feels overwhelms him and is projected onto the body of the old man. It may very well be the narrator's own beating heart—beating with fear and guilt—that is pounding in his ears, but the anguish it causes is not relieved until he confesses.

Why does the narrator decide to kill the old man in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

The narrator is insane and believes that the old man has an evil force present within him, in his eye. 

"for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye."  

The Evil Eye is a belief that others had the ability to transmit curses with their eyes.  Its purpose was to cast a spell of bad luck, disease or death upon its victim.  

"It was open—wide, wide open—and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person:"   

The narrator may very well have been cursed by the old man's Evil Eye.  After the murder, the narrator, who believes he has gotten away with the murder is haunted with a terrible sensation that he cannot ignore.

"My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct:—It continued and became more distinct:"

The torment that he faces grows and grows within him until he can no longer stand it.

"It grew louder—louder—louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!—no, no! They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a mockery of my horror!"

The old man has beaten the narrator at his own game.  

Why does the narrator decide to kill the old man in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

The narrator decides to kill the boarding house owner because of his strange, milky-colored eye (most like a cataract-covered eye).  This eye becomes the obsession of the narrator and he decides that he must kill the boarding house owner.  He boasts of his own cleverness and he stalks the owner. He watches him without moving an inch as he sleeps at night.  The reader knows early on that the narrator is clearly mentally ill, obviously. 

Once the narrator murders the owner, he dismembers his body and puts it underneath the floorboards.  When the police come to question him about the murder, the narrator begins to hear what he perceives to be a heartbeat (probably the beating of his own heart). This causes him to become nervous and eventually paranoid.  He finally cannot take it anymore and he screams that he killed the owner of the boarding house.

The narrator simply killed the owner for no other reason except the strange eye.  The narrator even points out the the owner was a kind man who he got along with well. 

What is the narrator's motivation for murder in "The Tell-Tale Heart", and is it valid?

There is very little evidence that the narrator has just cause for murder.  The narrator, without  evidence, believes that the old man with whom he lives wishes him harm.  His sole "evidence" is the  man's cloudy eye, which he thinks indicates his willingness to harm him, even though all exterior does not support such a claim in any way. 

Some evidence for this argument can be supported by the lines which read:

" It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever."

What evidence suggests the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" is guilty of murder?

There is really never any doubt about the guilt of the mad narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart." The narrator explicitly describes his actions, from his planning of the attack a week in advance to the calculating way in which he completes his task. What the narrator refuses to admit is that he is mad--not a murderer.

... but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

The narrator then gives his step-by-step process of the murder process. On the eighth night of stealthily opening the old man's door and peering into his room, the narrator finally takes action. When at last he saw the "vulture eye" open, the narrator attacked.

With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once—once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him... The old man was dead... Yes, he was stone, stone dead... His eye would trouble me no more.

Afterwards, the narrator dismembered the corpse, placing it under the boards of the floor.

The only argument against the narrator having killed the old man would be if the old man had suffered a heart attack and died during the process--a possibility that even the narrator refused to consider. 

What caused the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" to confess?

I think it is his guilt that causes the narrator to confess. In the end, he has gotten away with the murder. The police are fooled by his calm and confident demeanor, and they "chatted pleasantly, and smiled." Suddenly, though, the narrator "grew very pale" and he begins to talk more quickly. He feels that he is gasping for breath and gesticulating violently; he says, "I foamed—I raved—I swore!" In reality, he does none of these things, and they are all taking place within his imagination as the men just keep sitting there. The narrator hears a sound he has heard before: "a low, dull, quick sound—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton." He thinks this sound is the old man's heartbeat still beating underneath the floorboards, but we know that this is not possible. The heartbeat the narrator hears must be his own, and it would be racing, thumping loudly if he were feeling guilty for the murder he has committed. Therefore, I believe it is the narrator's guilt that compels him to confess because a) he was just about to get away with the murder, and b) his quickened heartbeat could indicate a guilty conscience.

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," what reasons does the narrator give for committing the murder?

In "The Tell-Tale Heart" the narrator says that the idea of murdering the old man came about because of his eye:

Yes! it was this! He had the eye of a vulture....Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold; and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and rid myself of the eye forever.

When the narrator finally sees the eye open on the eighth night, he becomes "furious" as he gazes "upon it."  Then, he hears the beating of the old man's heart, and the narrator declares that

It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.

When "the hellish tattoo of the heart increased," the narrator becomes excited to "uncontrollable terror" and has "anxiety" that the sound will be heard by a neighbor, so he throws open the lantern and rushes into the room and kills the old man.  Of course, this anxiety and imagining of the beat of the heart later induces the narrator to confess his crime. His hypersensitivity, like that of Roderick Usher in another story of Poe's, leads to his demise.

Is the narrator's action in "The Tell-Tale Heart" justified?

There is no evidence to suggest that the narrator's actions were justified. The unreliable narrator is depicted as a mentally unstable individual, who is completely out of touch with reality and suffers from auditory hallucinations. At the beginning of the story, the narrator attempts to convince the audience of his sanity and describes his victim as a kind, friendly old man. The narrator says,

He [the old man] had never wronged me. He had never given me insult.

The narrator proceeds to explain to the audience that his only motivation for brutally murdering the old man had to do with his "vulture" eye. The old man's eye was pale and had a film over it, which provoked the narrator's wrath. The narrator elaborates on his feelings regarding the old man's eye by saying,

Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

Given the fact that the narrator's sole motivation for murdering the old man is that he could not stand to look at his "Evil Eye," the narrator's actions do not seem to be justified. The narrator is evidently mentally disturbed, which is why he felt the need to brutally murder the defenseless old man.

Why does the murderer in "The Tell-Tale Heart" kill the old man and turn himself in?

The murderer is what one might call paranoid. In his delusions, he thinks the old man who is blind, probably with cataracts because his eyes are clouded, is watching him all of the time. Because of his paranoid delusions, he ends up killing the old man by smothering him with a matress or pillow.

When the detectives were in the room searching for the old man, the paranoid murderer's own heart kept beating harder and faster. Again, being paranoid, the murderer assumed that it was the heart of the man he had killed and buried under the floor. Because he could not stop the pounding of the heart, the murderer ends up ripping up the floor boards to deliver the body to the detectives.

Poe gives the reader a first-hand visit into the mind of the madman. His details and delivery of the story lead us through the psychological horror story. Poe called this type of story an "arabesque".

Why does the villain kill the old man in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

The protagonist, or villain, in E.A. Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" murders the old man because he (the protagonist/narrator) despises the old man's eye: "I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever." The narrator never speaks of anything wrong the old man did to him; he never claims that he injured or insulted him in any way.

The narrator claims to be sane, numerous times. That said, one does question the narrator's sanity based upon the "fact" that he can hear both heaven and hell (and the fact that he wishes to murder the old man, a man that he loves). Curiously, readers familiar with Poe recognize the concept of giving one insult as being reasoning for murder (as taken from the later "The Cask of Amontillado"). Here, readers most likely question the murder of the old man based solely upon the narrator's dislike of the eye alone.

What is the narrator’s motive for confessing to killing the old man in “The Tell-Tale Heart”?

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator confesses to murdering the old man because of a combination of insanity and guilt.

Although the narrator repeatedly assures us of his sanity, it is quite clear that he is insane. When the police arrive to investigate a scream reported by the neighbors, the narrator convinces them that the scream was his own and the old man is away from home. The police believe this story and do not suspect anything is amiss.

Arrogant and convinced of his own infallibility, the narrator invites the police to sit and chat. As they all talk, the narrator begins to hear a ringing that no one else seems to hear. At first, he is not too alarmed, because the unspecified disease from which he suffers heightens his sense of hearing. The sound grows increasingly louder until it becomes unbearable.

The narrator, not of sound mind, becomes convinced that the sound he hears is the beating of the dead old man’s heart coming from beneath the floorboards where the dismembered body parts are hidden. The narrator becomes paranoid and believes that the police are aware of his guilt and are gaslighting him by pretending they do not hear the sound.

Unable to take the sound and stress anymore, the narrator confesses to killing the old man, rips up the floorboards, and reveals the old man’s body parts.

The narrator confesses because he is insane and irrationally believes that the old man’s heart is still beating even though he is dead. The narrator most likely feels guilty for killing the old man, whom he claims to love. The heartbeat sound is probably a manifestation of his own guilt. His paranoia makes him believe that the police are already aware of his evil deeds, so he confesses to make the sounds he is hearing stop.

Why does the narrator confess to the murder when the police arrive in The Tell-Tale Heart?

The speaker lets the police into his apartment in order to reassure them that he has nothing to hide from them. However, the longer they stay, the more he begins to grow agitated. He feels that he begins to hear a sound, and he thinks that "the noise was not within [his own] ears" but coming from outside of himself. He says that it is a "low, dull, quick sound⁠—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton," a sound he also claimed to have heard just prior to murdering the old man. When he heard it the first time, he interpreted it as "the beating of the old man's heart," pounding loudly because of the old man's fear. However, it is unlikely that he, then, heard the old man's heart beating from across the room, and it is impossible that he should hear the dead old man's heart beating from beneath the floorboards now. It seems most likely that the sound the speaker hears is actually his own heart beating harder and faster as a result of his own adrenaline pumping. He feels certain that the police must hear it, though they do not (further evidence that it is the narrator's own heart). He fears detection, which makes his heart race; he mistakes the sound for the old man's heartbeat, and he assumes that the police will hear it. He can no longer stand the suspense of waiting for them to acknowledge the sound and his guilt, and so he confesses rather than having to endure the tension any longer.