The Tell‐Tale Heart - Edgar Alan Poe

Theme:

Edgar Allan Poe's story The Tell – Tale Heart presents murderous act done by a man and confessions done later. The story shows how guilt forces a person to confess his crime.

Summary:

Edgar Alan Poe in his story The Tell‐Tale Heart shows the mystery of murder keeping the readers in great suspense up to end of the story. The narrator is very sensitive to hearing and denies the allegation of being as he is capable of telling his own story beautifully.

The narrator was sharing a house with an old man keeping a very good relationship with him. He badly disliked the pale blue vulture like eyes of the old man which disturbed him very much. To get rid of the eye of the old man, finally he decided to kill him. He entered into the room of the old man with an aim to kill him for 7 nights. However, he came back each time without killing him because he found the vulture like eyes of old man closed. Since only the eye of the old man stimulates his anger, he couldn’t kill the old man because he didn’t see the eyes of the old man. On the eighth night, in the processes of entering into the room of the old man woke up and sat on his bed. Even after waiting for a long time , he

didn’t realized the old man sleeping back , so he opened the lantern and put the ray of light on the vulture like eye which was wide opened. Being sensitive to hearing, he also started hearing the heartbeat of the old man which grew louder every movement.

Finally, he became extremely angry. He dragged the old man onto the floor and put heavy bed on him. Soon, the old man died and the heartbeat stopped. After the death of the old man, he cut his body into pieces very carefully leaving no blood spot on the floor. Removing wooden planks, he hides the dead body in the old man’s  room. At four o’clock in the morning three policemen arrived for the investigation as the dying shriek (cry) was overhead by the neighbor ho informed the police suspecting some fool play in the house on enquiry. The narrator informed the police that the shriek was of his own in dream and the old man was staying in the village. The policeman searched the house and found nothing unusual. They all sat in the old man’s room and started talking. The narrator began to hear a dull, quick sound and it being made by a watch which he thought to be of an old man. The sound started growing louder every movement and bothered him very much. As he couldn’t stand the sound of the said heart, he told everything to the police and confessed his crime.

Summary from the Internet:

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately the narrator's guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that the man's heart is still beating under the floorboards.

It is unclear what relationship, if any, the old man and his murderer share. It has been suggested that the old man is a father figure, or whether the narrator works for the old man as a servant, perhaps, that his vulture eye represents some sort of veiled secret, or power. The ambiguity and lack of details about the two main characters stand in stark contrast to the specific plot details leading up to the murder.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative of an unnamed narrator who insists he is sane but suffering from a disease (nervousness) which causes "over-acuteness of the senses". The old man with whom he lives has a clouded, pale, blue "vulture-like" eye which so distresses the narrator that he plots to murder the old man, though the narrator states that he loves the old man, and hates only the eye. The narrator insists that his careful precision in committing the murder shows that he cannot possibly be insane. For seven nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, a process which takes him a full hour. However, the old man's vulture eye is always closed, making it impossible to "do the work".

On the eighth night, the old man awakens and sits up in his own bed while the narrator performs his nightly ritual. The narrator does not draw back and, after some time, decides to open his lantern. A single ray of light shines out and lands precisely on the old man's eye, revealing that it is wide open. Hearing the old man's heart beating unusually and dangerously quick from terror, the narrator decides to strike, jumping out with a loud yell and smothering the old man with his own bed. The narrator dismembers the body and conceals the pieces under the floorboards, making certain to hide all signs of the crime. Even so, the old man's scream during the night causes a neighbor to report to the police. The narrator invites the three arriving officers in to look around. He claims that the screams heard were his own in a nightmare and that the man is absent in the country. Confident that they will not find any evidence of the murder, the narrator brings chairs for them and they sit in the old man's room, right on the very spot where the body is concealed, yet they suspect nothing, as the narrator has a pleasant and easy manner about him.

The narrator, however, begins to hear a faint noise. As the noise grows louder, the narrator comes to the conclusion that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the floorboards. The sound increases steadily, though the officers seem to pay no attention to it. Shocked by the constant beating of the heart and a feeling that not only are the officers aware of the sound, but that they also suspect him, the narrator confesses to killing the old man and tells them to tear up the floorboards to reveal the body.

Questions Answers:

1. Justify the title, ‘The Tell‐Tale Heart’.

The narrator is the victim of nervous disease and over sensitive to hearing. He wants to kill the old man to get rid of the vulture like eyes of the old man. After entering into the room of the old man with and aim to kill him, the narrator starts hearing a strange, dull sound as if being made by a watch which he believes to be the heartbeat of the old man. After killing the old man, he cuts the body into pieces and hides them under the wooden floor. In the morning, when three police officers arrived there, he starts talking with them sitting in the old man’s room as the police officers don’t find anything unusual.

However, while being there, the narrator starts hearing strange sound which he believes to be the heartbeat of the old man. As he couldn’t stand the sound of the said heart beat, he confesses his crime and reveals the entire story before the police. Since, the supposed heart discloses the secret of the murder, the title The Tale‐Tale Heart is therefore justifiable and appropriate to the text.

2. Was the narrator mad?

Though sanity and insanity is a matter of debate, there are various indications in the story that suggest his madness. The narrator killed an old and innocent man with out any concrete reason. He did not hesitate to cut the body of the old man into pieces. Though the man loved him, he did not understand the value of love. Rather he mercilessly killed him. Even after killing and dismembering the body of the old man, he suspected that the old man’s heart was beating. He had no idea that after a man is killed his heart stops beating. The narrator has revealed himself that he is suffering from a disease which causes ‘over-acuteness of the senses’. Over-acuteness of senses is also one sign of madness. He was overcome by homicidal mania. Madmen never repent their wrong doing. In this story also instead of repenting for his wrongful act, the narrator has tried to prove his sanity. Thus his abnormal behavior suggests that he was truly mad. 

Questions to be discussed:

1. Why does narrator develop intense hatred against the old man? Would you call the narrator mad? Give reasons for your answer. [059-10]

2. What made the narrator confess his crime? [062-3]

3.  Describe the scene when the narrator killed the old man. [064-3]

4.  What made the narrator confess his crime? [065-3]