This is the first short story that we had to read,
so this is my comment....
The paragraph that we have to analyse is the following:


"The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct: --It continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definiteness --until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears."


I think the guilt felt by the guy was proper for a person who committed a murder, and the fear that he repesents too. It has to be something horrible recognize that the ringing was't inside of their hears, but despite that he continues doing and pretending to be a person who is not real.


For more comments here is the poem of Edgar Allan Poe