Summary:
a story of a man driven by
madness.
Characters:
an old man, his caregiver,
and police officers.
Symbolism:
the vulture eye, the
caregiver's hallucinations, and the beating heart.
Plot:
An old man lives in his house with his caregiver. The caregiver is
normally good to the old man and treats him in a very humane way; that is when
the caregiver's eyes don't fall on the old man's vulture eye.
One of the old man's eyes is as described by the caregiver, is like a
vulture's eye – pale blue with a film over it. Whenever the caregiver's eyes
land on the vulture eye, it drives him mad; the eye always manages to send
shivers of horror down his spine.
One day, the caregiver decides to kill the old man and rid himself of
the eye forever. It would be a perfect ploy he thought.
Every night at midnight, for exactly a one week, the caregiver would
enter the old man's bedchamber and would spy on the eye, only to find it
closed. In conclusion, it makes the caregiver abandon his killing mission for
he had no ill will for the old man; only for the eye.
On the night of the eighth night, the old man awakened and heard a noise
in the room. He kept calling out who was there but only silence answered his
call. For a whole hour, the old man was awake and the caregiver was shrouded in
darkness, silent and unmoving, while standing frozen by the bedchamber's door.
After what felt like an eternity, the caregiver fully opened the
chamber's door and went inside, lantern in hand. When the lantern's light
spread across the room, it fell upon the old man's vulture eye and he found it
open, staring at him – which drove him to madness.
The caregiver called his condition 'acute senses' and not madness. As
the minutes ticked by, he heard the beating of the old man's beating heart – so
loud it nearly deafened him and he feared the sound would be heard by the
neighbors; so he decided to kill him right then and there.
The old man knew that the caregiver was watching him for the past week,
and when he saw the caregiver's intention on his face, he let out a yell of
fear but it was in vain.
The caregiver struck the old man and proceeded to slaughter him. To
avoid splashing of the blood, the caregiver laid the old man in a bath tub and
proceeded to dismember him.
Later on, the caregiver decided to be rid of the dismembered corpse
under the wooden floorboards in the old man's bedchamber.
After finishing his vicious deed, the caregiver cleaned up and proceeded
to act as if he hadn't committed a mortal sin.
At four o'clock, a shriek was heard in the night and a suspicion of foul
play had the police arrive at the premises.
The young caregiver received the police officers with ease for in his
mind, he had naught to fear. He invited them in and informed them that the
shriek was his own from a bad dream and that the old man was away in the
country.
The caregiver instructed them to inspect the house for anything out of
order and in his confidence, he took them to the old man's room, brought chairs
for the officers – and with arrogance, he took a seat with them right above the
spot where he buried the dismembered corpse.
Time passed as the caregiver chatted away with the officers. Jokes and
fun words were exchanged between the men when suddenly, the caregiver started
to feel severe ringing in his ears. The caregiver – greatly in pain – paid it
no mind and kept on his charade in front of the officers.
However, the more the caregiver ignored the ringing in his ears, the
more it intensified. The caregiver kept paying it no mind and kept on his
chatting with the officers.
Until
the ringing turned into thumping.
Thump…thump…thump…
The caregiver was going mad with the fearful sound—not knowing what it
was or where it came from; he kept on ignoring it.
Until
he realized—
It was
the sound of the old man's beating heart.
That's not possible. He
thought. He was certain the old man was dead – he dismembered his body and
buried it under the wooden planks. How could the old man's heart still beat?
How could its sound be stronger and louder than when he was alive?
The
more the officers stayed, the more restless the caregiver became.
The
more he kept on ignoring the sound, the louder it became.
It was
driving him into madness.
Thump…thump…thump…
He was shaking; fear wrapping an iron fist around his own heart. Why
won't they leave? He thought, his blood turning to ice in his veins.
Thump…thump…thump…
Louder and louder the sound became – despite it being a slow thump. It
felt as if canons were being fired in his ears. He yelled, raved, and threw his
chair on the place where the old man was buried.
However,
the officers paid him no mind and kept on chatting and smiling.
They
are mocking me…making a mockery of my fear and misery…they knew…they knew.
Thump…
Thump…
Thump…
He
could handle it no more. That awful sound drilling into his brain and soul.
Anything
was better than this agony. Prison – death was better than this agony.
"Villains!"
He screamed, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here,
here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!".
Analysis:
The themes that are strongest in this story are suspicion, paranoia,
fear, the sense of conscience, and man's ability to commit murder.
The caregiver was essentially a good man who took good care of the frail
old man. Not once had the thought of murdering him cross the caregiver's mind.
Until
his sight fell upon the old man's vulture eye at night.
His sense of paranoia took a hold of him and drove him to insanity, making
him believe that the eye was out to get him – that if he doesn't get rid of the
eye first, it'll curse or even kill him.
The caregiver's fear, suspicion, and paranoia reached out to the deeply
buried evil side of him – we are all born with fifty percent good and fifty
percent evil and it's up to us humans to let one side take hold of us; good or
evil, based on our decisions and actions, and whether our heart is strong in
the face of evil or easily taken over.
When the caregiver killed the old man, he had a fake sense of relief and
a strong sense of arrogance that his crime won't be discovered…which happens to
every murderer. They all have arrogance that makes them believe that their
crimes would never be undiscovered.
But like every crime, it's always unveiled regardless of the
circumstances and no matter how long it's covered and unknown.
This
happens in our story when the caregiver's buried conscience comes to the
surface.
The caregiver's conscience was his undoing, or was it his savior? It
made him imagine that the old man's heart was still beating, even after being
killed and buried. His conscience created auditory hallucinations in the form
of the old man's beating heart. It wanted him to confess his crime—to come
forward with his evil deed and wash him of sin by admitting it and paying for
it.
Conscience is the knowledge of a person being good—deep down, only his
weak soul and fragile will lead him to commit atrocities and evil deeds.
My conclusion regarding this story with is that we as humans are very
fragile creatures. We can be swayed by our mind if our soul and heart were
weak.
We are also strong creatures; if our heart and souls are veracious and
steady—nothing can sway us or affect us. It's about faith and believing in our
goodness winning over our evil.
It's always a struggle – a raging war between good and evil and only the
person able to choose which side to let take over.
Good or
Evil.
Angel
or Devil.
THE END
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