Final answer:
In "The Tell-Tale Heart," guilt affects the narrator's conscience significantly, leading to his eventual confession due to the psychological torment it causes.
Step-by-step explanation:
Guilt plays a pivotal role in the conscience of the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." When guilt overcomes the narrator after committing a murder, it manifests as an unbearable burden that ultimately compels him to confess.
This psychological torment is evidenced through the narrator's heightened senses and the auditory hallucination of the victim's still-beating heart, which serves as a relentless reminder of his deed. The guilt is so overpowering that it overrides his initial pride and cleverness in having successfully executed the crime.
In literary analysis, several passages from different sources have depicted how guilt can intrude upon the human conscience, leading individuals to various extreme reactions ranging from self-imposed isolation to madness or even to a transformative spiritual experience. These scenarios resonate with the narrative in "The Tell-Tale Heart," where the protagonist's guilt shapes his mental state and drives the story to its climax.