Deconstructing Poe
...provides the reader with examples such as “every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it-oh so gently!” as well as, “ It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed.” Which in turn opposes the latter portion of the tale in which the “heart” that he believes he is hearing is beating so rapidly and uncontrollably that he believes it to be the old man’s, “But now the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst!” For there was no way possible that a calm rational murderer such as the author would ever possess a heart that would betray him beating so loudly, and creating such an agitated noise as the pulse of anxiety. So that is the begging of a huge possibility for a gr...