The Tell-Tale Heart Analysis

     The Tell-Tale Heart is a classic Poe story, but it is short so it leaves a lot of details unexplained. Throughout the story the narrator tries to prove that he's not a madman by explaining how he murdered an old man. That in itself should prove that this man is not mentally stable. We don't find out for sure if the narrator is a man or a woman, but there is one clue that makes me think it's a man. When the police come and don't find anything they sit and talk casually with the narrator. During this time period (1830s or 40s) I don't think they would stay to talk and joke with a woman. The story might be the narrator's confession or statement to a court. Maybe they're trying to put him in a mental institution.
     Then there is the problem of the source of the beating heart. One good guess-at least as to part of it- is that there was an infestation of death-watch beetles at this time. These beetles burrow in walls or woodwork and make a noise that sounds like the ticking of a watch and was "supposed to predict the death of some one of the family in the house in which it is heard." The narrator would have been able to hear the sound clearly because he said that he had very acute hearing. So it's possible that when he admitted to the murder at the end because he thought he heard the man's heart, it was actually the death-watch. The beetle could have even been in the floor, or maybe it was attracted to the body, so the sound would have come from that direction. This, mixed with the narrator's guilt, could have caused him to believe it was the sound of the heart.