Question

Why was the narrator not able to kill the old man the first seven nights when he

looked in on him?
The old man was awake, and they lost their nerve.
The old man was asleep and because they couldn't see the gross eye, they
couldn't bring themselves to kill him.
The old man screamed and was afraid someone might hear, so they changed
their mind.
They were unable to enter the old man's room without waking him.

Answer 1

The narrator couldn't kill the old man for the first seven nights because the old man's 'vulture eye', the motivation for the murder, wasn't visible while he slept.

Step-by-step explanation:

The narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart was not able to kill the old man during the first seven nights because the old man was asleep, and the narrator's motivation for the murder was centered on the old man's eye, which he describes as a 'vulture eye'. Since the eye was closed while the old man slept, the narrator couldn't see the eye that drove their murderous impulse, and therefore couldn't bring themselves to commit the act.