The Bed and the Bedroom The Action of Killing Murder

dragging him into anxiety. Actually, the heartbeat that the narrator listens to is his heartbeat which suggests that the narrator’s conscience trying to influences the narrator with sense of guilt. “It was the beating of the old mans heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.”Poe,1992:94. Here the quotation may suggest the narrator’s will to commit the murder. However, it is actually the conscience of the narrator and it is deflected by the narrator anxiety. Therefore, the murder is inevitable. “Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and l ouder and louder every instant… do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am… so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror.” Poe,1992:92, 98. The quotations above suggest that the heartbeat truly disturb the narrator. Again, this is the sign of the narrator’s cons cience. The narrator’s conscience tries to prevent the murder. However, since the narrator’s anxiety is much stronger, the will to murder grows stronger. After the murder, the narrator conceals the body under the floor. “In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound.” Poe,1992:94. After the concealment of the body, the narrator still hears the sound of heartbeat. The narrator thinks it is the sound of the old man’s heartbeat. However, the sound of the heartbeat suggests the representation of the narrator’s guilt. As the stronger the sound goes, the guilt also grows stronger, and forces the narrator to confess his murder. Villains I shrieked, dissemble no more I admit the deed --tear up the planks here, here --It is the beating of his hideous heartPoe,1992:96

C. The Revelation of the Dynamic of the Narrator’s Unconscious Mind

through the Symbols in the Story In the story the narrator is presented as an emotionally unstable person, and his unstable emotion made him an unreliable narrator. In the story, for example, he claimed that he loves the old man. “…I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He ha d never given me insult…” Poe,1992:92. This quotation, suggests the absence of the narrator’s contempt towards the old man. However, there are other proves which contains his dazzling characteristics. “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.”Poe,1992:92 From quotations above, the narrator’s true feeling towards the old man can be seen. Although the narrator says that he’s afraid of the old man’s eye, the evidence proof otherwise. If the narrator intimidated by th e old man’s eye, it reasonable to say that the narrator is also intimidated by the old man.