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Tell-Tale Heart is a story written by the literary master Edgar Allen Poe. It starts with a narrator's introduction, who informs the reader he's nervous but sane. Over the course of the story, he plans to share a story where he admits to killing an old man but defends his sanity.
According to the narrator, the old man's homicide wasn't driven by passion or greed but by the mere fear of the man's pale blue eye. To assert his claim of sanity, the narrator substantiates by saying that his actions were calculated. While confessing his crime, he reveals that he watched the old man sleep every night.
What happens in Tell-Tale Heart?
After a week of watching the old man sleep, the narrator decided it was time to kill the old man. On the eighth night, the old man woke up and cried out. The narrator, however, stayed put, watching the scared old man. He elucidates how he could sense the old man's fear because he also felt it.
The old man's heartbeat grew perpetually louder. A fear then consumed the narrator, whose only focus was the sound of the old man's heartbeat. The narrator feels the intensity of the old man's heartbeat to the extent he thinks it could be heard by the neighbors. Thus, he kills the old man.
He then dismembers the body and hides it under the floor, leaving no blood. A clock strikes four as the police knock on his door, alerted by a neighbor. He acts normal and shows them around, even letting them sit at the crime scene. Then, he starts hearing a thumping sound and believes the police hear it, too.
The thumping sound is that of his heart. Yet again, the same daunt engulfs him. In a fit of hysteria, he confesses his crime. He informs the police to rip up the floorboards where he hid the old man's body.
What is the genre of Tell-Tale Heart?
Tell-Tale Heart is a short Gothic horror story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in The Pioneer in 1843. The story, narrated by an unnamed person who insists he's not mad, has had a lasting impact on later stream-of-consciousness fiction and solidified Poe's reputation as a master of horror.
The narrator takes pleasure in detailing how he killed and dismembered an old man. The dialogues using figures of speech like anaphora for reiteration purposes set the tone effectively.
The story is a psychological study, revealing the narrator's descent into madness. He claims to understand and pity his victim's fear, even as he enjoys it. Driven mad by what he thinks are the loud heartbeats of his victim, he kills the old man.
The evocative symbolism in Tell-Tale Heart
In The Tell-Tale Heart, the old man's eye is a crucial symbol. The narrator says he committed the crime because of the eye's unsettling look. Its pale blue, cloudy aspect could imply the old man is blind or has poor vision, symbolizing the narrator's own distorted perception.
The eye is also called a "vulture eye," making the narrator feel threatened. This could hint at the narrator's own deteriorating mental state, as vultures target the weak or dying. As the narrator says:
"One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture — a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold."
The heartbeats the narrator hears symbolize his guilt. Generally, a heart represents a person's core emotions or desires. However, in this story, the heart "tells tales," revealing the old man's fear and, later, the narrator's guilt.
"Meantime, the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker and louder and louder every instant," the narrator goes on to say.
The setting of the story is an old house where both characters live. The only room described is the old man's dark bedroom, accessed through a door with squeaky hinges. While neighbors are close enough to hear the old man's screams, inside the house, the characters seem entirely isolated.
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