Read the excerpt from "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe (Adapted).

Narrator:

Nervous—very, very nervous I had been and am. But why do you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed or dulled them. Especially sharp was the sense of hearing. I heard all things in heaven and on earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Listen! See how clearly and calmly I can tell you the whole story.

It is impossible to say how the idea first entered my brain. But once it was born, it haunted me day and night. There was no reason for it. There was no passion to it. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never insulted me. I had no desire for his gold. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture. It was a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it looked at me, my blood ran cold. And so very gradually I made up my mind to take the life of the old man. This way I would be rid of the eye forever.

Now this is the point. You think I am mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely, how carefully I went to work. I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. Every night, about midnight, I turned his door knob. I opened his door—oh, so gently.

READ TO FIND OUT:
Why would a killer suddenly confess to the police?