The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe that explores themes of madness, guilt, and the nature of perception. The narrative is delivered from the perspective of an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity despite confessing to a gruesome murder. He claims that his heightened senses allow him to perceive the world more acutely, yet he is consumed by a fixation on the old man's "vulture-like" eye, which he believes drives him to commit the act.
Over the course of eight nights, the narrator meticulously plans the murder, only to be overwhelmed by guilt and paranoia after the deed is done. He conceals the body beneath the floorboards and attempts to maintain his composure when the police arrive to investigate. However, as he speaks with the officers, he begins to hear what he believes is the old man's heart still beating beneath the floor, a manifestation of his overwhelming guilt. The story culminates in a dramatic confession as the narrator succumbs to the pressure of his own conscience.
Poe's work is noted for its exploration of the psychological aspects of guilt and the thin line between sanity and madness, making it a significant piece in the realm of Gothic literature. The story invites readers to reflect on the complexities of human emotion and the consequences of one's actions, resonating with diverse perspectives on morality and mental health.
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
First published: 1843
Type of work: Short fiction
Type of plot: Horror
Time of plot: 1840s
Locale: An American village
Principal Characters
The narrator , a man whose madness drives him to murderThe old man , in the care of the narrator, and his victim
The Story
A man insists that he is not mad. In spite of being dreadfully nervous, he also insists that his senses, especially his hearing, have been heightened rather than destroyed. He claims that the calm and healthy way he will tell the following story is evidence of his sanity.
He admits that he cannot say when the idea to kill the old man had come into his mind. He says he had no reason, nor passion, for killing him; the old man had never harmed or insulted him. He did not want his money. He says he loved the old man. He thinks he killed him because of the old man’s eye, like the eye of a vulture, a pale blue eye that made the narrator’s blood run cold.
The narrator says that he had never been kinder to the old man than he had been during the week before he killed him. He tells the following story: Before the murder, every night at midnight, he makes a small opening in the old man’s chamber door and puts a small closed lantern inside. Taking an hour to slowly place his head in the opening so he can see the old man, he opens the lantern, allowing the light to shine on the vulture eye. He does this for seven nights, but because the eye is always closed, he does not become enraged by it. In great detail, he praises himself for his cunning, asks his listener if a mad person could have been so clever as he, and even tells the listener that he or she would have laughed if they had seen how methodically he had opened the door and placed the lantern inside the old man’s chamber.
On the eighth night, he tells the listener, he once again puts the lantern inside the chamber, but this time his finger slips, making a noise that wakens the old man, who then cries out. For an hour, the narrator waits; then he hears a groan and recognizes it as the groan of mortal terror, a sound he, too, has made in the night. He slowly opens the crevice in the lantern until the light falls on the open vulture eye. Still he waits, knowing the old man’s terror must be extreme. He hears a sound like that of a watch inside cotton and thinks it is the beating of the old man’s terrified heart. Imagining that the sound is so loud it could be heard by a neighbor, he bursts inside the chamber, pulls the old man to the floor, and suffocates him with the bedding. He then cuts up the corpse and puts the body parts under the floor, replacing the boards so cleverly so that no one could ever see anything wrong.
Proud that a tub had caught all of the old man’s blood, he then cleans up the crime scene and prepares to go to bed when he hears a knock at the door. Three men who identify themselves as police tell him that neighbors had reported hearing a shriek in the night. He smiles and says it was his own shriek in a dream. He tells the officers that the old man is out, visiting in the country, then takes them through the house, leading them to the old man’s bedchamber. He brings in chairs for them to sit on, placing his own chair right over the spot where the corpse is hidden beneath the floorboards.
He answers the officers’ questions, cheerily, but then thinks he hears a ringing in his ears, which gets louder and more distinct. Finally, he thinks that the noise is not from within his ears but from beneath the flooring. He becomes more and more agitated, pacing, swearing, and grating his chair upon the floor over the body. He thinks the police can hear the sound also, and that they are pretending they do not, making a mockery of his own horror. Finally, he feels he must scream or die. He shrieks loudly, admitting the murder and insisting the officers pull up the planks to reveal the beating of the old man’s “hideous heart.”
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