The correct answer would be B. Guilt because in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The
Tell-Tale Heart,” the beating of the heart that narrator hears is symbolic for
the guilt the narrator feels for having murdered the old man. Evidence of his guilt is presented early in
the short story by how the narrator tells us that he “had to do it” as if he
had no other choice, which seems to be a sort of defense mechanism to make
himself feel better about killing the old man.
Finally, it is within the presence of the police that the beating heart
only he hears is what makes him confess to the crime because it was getting too
great for him to bear any longer.
Hope I helped.
