Student Question
What did the narrator do for a week before killing the old man in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?
Quick answer:
Before killing the old man, the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" tries to prove his sanity by meticulously planning the murder. For a week, he is exceptionally kind to the old man and sneaks into his room each night to shine a lantern on him. The narrator believes his cautious and calculated actions demonstrate sanity, though they ironically highlight his obsessive and unstable nature.
The narrator attempts to prove himself sane by recounting the actions he took before killing the old man. He believes that his planning and his foresight prove that he is not mad because "madmen know nothing".
He tells the reader that he "was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before [he] killed him." He then goes on to explain how he would sneak into the old man's room and shine his lantern. He would do this with extreme caution, which he believes, once again, to prove his sanity. The irony is that these obsessive traits do more to show the opposite.
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