202

4. THE TELL TALE HEART

By: Edger Allen Poe

SUMMARY
Edgar Allan Poe born in January 19, 1809 and
died on 7 October, 1849. He was an American
writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known
for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales
of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded
as a central figure of Romanticism in the United
States and American literature as a whole, and he
was one of the country's earliest practitioners of
the short story. Poe is generally considered the
inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further
credited with contributing to the emerging genre of
science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a nvug

through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

THE TELL TALE HEART

itten by
"The Tell Tale Heart is a short, but highly effective, horror story wru
iew
Edger Allen Poe andpublished in 1843. It is told from the first person point o the
of a murderer who tries to convince the listener of his methodical
sanity despl
otherworldly events that lead to his capture.

28
 ENHANCEMENT IV (Semester- VI) 29
ENGLISH FOR ABILITY

The narrator lives with an old man who poSsesses one filmy, pale blue. "vulture.
1:te" eve that the narrator despISes.
It is unclear what relationship the two have. or if
a r e any other circumstances leading to the events. The narrator assures the

hate for the man other than complete revulsion for the
that he harbored
no
listener
how the hatred of the eye grew so much he decided to murder the
eve. He describes
to the listener that his careful detail means
old man. He lays out his plan, insisting
that he could not possibly be insane.
thin ray of light through a crack in the door onto
For seven nights, he shines a

narrator is unable to complete

each time the eye is closed, and the
the man's eye, but
and makes a noise, waking
his plan.On the night, the narrator's hand slips
eighth
narrator doesn't draw back. After a few minutes, he opens the
the old man. The
finds the eye open. He hears the
man's heart beating
lantern and the sliver of light
smothers the old man with a pillow.
wildly from terror, and he strikes. He
the pieces under the floorboards.
Afterward, he dismembers the man and lays
hearda scream, but the narrator
When the police arrive, they claim that neighbors will
He is so sure they
insists that it was he crying out from his nightmares.
only
that he pulls up chairs and invites them to sit
never find evidence of his wrongdoing
over the spot where
the old man is buried.
down directly
uncomfortable and feels a ringing in his ears.
After a while, the narrator grows of the
he is convinced that it is the heartbeat
It grows louder and louder, and soon
the
floorboards. As the sound grows louder,
murdered man coming from under the
heart. He is convinced that
the
narrator of the wild beating of the
becomes terrified
the
but that they also know of his guilt. Finally,
officers not only hear the beating,
the floorboards so

narator breaks down and confesses, telling the officers to tear up

they can find the pieces of the old man.
in the middle of a conversation already in
The story begins "in medias res" or
and relies on the concept
progress, though we are unsure of the identity of the listener,
not. His insistence
narrator is sane or
of an unreliable narrator. We do not know if the
his own admission
the events of the story, and by
that he is sane is undermined by
that he suffers from a disease of nerve sensitivity.

imagining the sound of the heart. We don't

It is also unclear if the narrator was
if he were hearing his own heart
know if the sound was mistaken for a heart, or
 30
ENGLISH FOR ABILITY ENHANCEMENT IV Semester -V
Deating. It could also be
purely his imagination. The uncertainty only heightens the
fear and discomfort.
One of the
major themes is that of guilt. The narrator is obsessed with committing
the perfect crime, but his guilt ultimately leads to his destruction. The sound of the
heart beating, or his perception that it is the man's heart, leads him to confess when
al evidence suggests that the officers were totally unaware of his guilt. Had he not
let his nerves get the better of him, he might have gotten away with it completely

The story examines the delicate balance of human nature. The narrator claims
he is a sane man, but he is driven to an evil act by his discomfort and hatred for
something so simple as a cloudy eye. Likewise, the narrator separates the old man
himself, whom he claims to love and with whom he claims no grievance, from his
evil eye.

Another theme is what pushes a person over to the dark side is different for
each person, and it is difficult to know what small thing will finally do it. The
narrator's insistence that he is completely sane belies the fact that he commited
such a ghastly crime against someone he claimed to love.

It is possible that Poe wished to illustrate that irrational fear could provoke this
dark side. Others have suggested that the eye kind of
represents some
patriarchal
supervision. Remove the eye, remove the consequences. However, the guilt of the
author proves to be the most serious
consequence of all and one that he cannot, in
the end, escape.
The narrator is unable to
escape punishment for his crime. He is caught because
he is consumed by guilt. His confession leaves us unsure if the events are imaginedd
or just misinterpreted. All we know is that despite the narrator's insistence on his
sanity, we are left with the aftermath of
madness.
WHAT IS THE THEME FOR "THE
TELL-TALE HEART?"
Two major themes in Edgar Allen
Poe's "The Tel1-Tale
madness. The narrator is seemingly unable Heart" and are guilt
to cope with his guilt and
confesses everything to the police, ruining his eventually
is also in
"perfect crime." The narrator's sanity
question. His justifications for
killing the old man and his actions throughout
the story suggest that the narrator has, in fact,
descended into madness.
ENGLISH FOR ABILITY ENHANCEMENT IV(Semester -VI) 31

One of the major themes in "The Tell-Tale Heart" is the effects of guilt or
conscience and the descent into madness. In the story, the narrator's sanity is
definitely in question. He kills the old man because of his "evil eye" but then feels
guilty about it.

The story depicts a rapid devolving of the narrator's psyche. At first he is very
of himself, and considers himself very clever to have gotten away with the
proud
murder. When the police arrive, he coolly tells them there is nothing wrong, then

leads them into the old man's room.

and desired
In the enthusiasm ofmy confidence, I brought chairs into the room,
in the wild audacity of my
them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself,
beneath which reposed the
perfecttriumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot
of the victim.
corpse
him. While he is in that room, his
However, his confidence gets the better of
imagine that the old man's
guilty conscience starts to bother him. He begins to

heart is still beating.

But, long, Ifeltmyself getting pale and

ere
wished them gone. My head ached,
and I fancied a ringing in my ears..
his growing mental
The ringing in his ears represents his conscience, and

instability.
sound as a watch makes when
It low, dull, quick sound-much such a
was a
breath-and yet the officers heard it not. I
talked
enveloped in cotton. I gasped for
more quickly-more vehemently;
but the noise steadily increased.

to act more and more erratically, arguing "about trifles, in

The narrator begins
a high key and with violent gesticulations"
and it might
Ultimately, it becomes obvious that the narrator is losing his mind,
and talk about
have been clear to the policeall along-why else would they stay

nothing?
What is the underlying theme of "The Tell
Tale Heart" and why
is this the theme
Another theme of this text has to do with the narrator's terrible fear of death. It

actually causes him to kill an old man that he claims to love, simply because the old
 32 ENGLISH FOR ABILITY ENHANCEMENT IV(Semester .
-VI)
man' s eye seems to remind him of death. He calls it "the eye of a vulture
Vultures are scavengers who are very much associated with death, because they
eat
carcasses of dead animals; they only appear when such carcasses are to be foun
Likewise, the "pale blue" color of the old man's eye and the "film over it" mato
it
sound like he has cataracts, an ocular disease associated with the elderly. Further
the narrator begins his nightly ritual of attempting to kill the old man at aboue

midnight" each night for a weck, and midnight is also often symbolic of death (uwhint
fits here. given the narrator's intention toward the old man). On the final night of tha
old man's life, the old man wakes up and emits "a groan of mortal terror" and the
narrator says he knows the sound well. He continues,

Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from
my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I
say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him ...

The old man fears for his life when he hears the narrator in the dark at
his door,
and the narrator indirectly admits that he also fears
death, that he has uttered the
same terrible
groan in the middle of the night. It appears, then, that our fear of death
can cause us to do strange and terrible things. Furthermore, our fear of death can
even drive us crazy.
in "The Tell-Tale
Heart, why does the narrator kill the
Simply put, the narrator
old man?
is crazy. A more
is unbalanced. Because he thinks he can developed answer might be, the narrator
hear the old man's
can too.
Therefore,
he kills the old man heart, he thinks others
to protect himself
This can be seen in this "
from being discovered.
passage: But the beating grew
heart must burst. And now a louder, louder! I thought tne
new
a neighbour" anxiety seized me-the sound would be heard oy
In "The Tell-Tale Heart" what
might the vulture's eye e?
Perhaps the vulture is an eye omen,
symboul
For, the narrator reflective of what is to happen to the nas
arrator.
declares, "Whenever it fell unon my
the narrator hlood ran cold." And, su,
me
becomes disturbed in a cold
creates a
rational for killing the old man premonition of evil to come. u s

whom, he declares, he loves. ne must be

ENGLISH FOR ABILITY ENHANCEMENT-IV (Semester VI) 33

rid of the eye to which he ascribes evil: "For it was not the oid man who vexed me,

but his Evil Eye."

In his stories Poe applied a technique which he termed "arabesque." This
and turming of details in a horrific way. In "The Tell-Tale
arabesque is a twisting
tattles on the evil-doer. However, rather than
Heart," it is, indeed, the heart that
the narrator imagines, it is the beating of his own
being the heart of the victim as
heart that the narrator hears,
his own conscience which he tries to silence long before
the narrator's "blood to run cold" in the beginning
the murder. This guilt is what causes
the vulture's eye. For, in an arabesque, the narrator sees already
when he sees
later commit. That is, he sees in the
reflected in the eye the murder which he will
vulture eye of death, the evil which his
soul already knows before the deed.

climax and falling action

What are the exposition, rising action,
in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?
when we are introduced to the narrator
The exposition of the "Tell-Tale Heart" is
action takes place as the narrator tries
and he insists that he is not insane. The rising
man. The climax of the story is
when the narrator
to muster the courage to kill the old
occurs when the narrator "hears"
kills the old man. The falling action of the story
heart beneath the floor boards.
the beating of the old man's
that sets up the rest of the story. It usually
Exposition is the part of the story
the story to follow. In "The Tell-Tale
introduces us to the characters and settings of
and the old man, and we see that the setting is the
Heart," we meet the narrator
that the narrator insists that he is not insane,
apartment of the narrator. We also
see

sane at all. He tells us that he is not

but we can tell from the beginning that he is not
man and didn't want to kill him.
insane, and then tells us he loved the old
there is some kind of obstacle standing
The rising action of the story occurs when
action occurs when the narrator
in the way of the outcome of the story. Here the rising
seven nights. He wants to kill the man, because he
goes into the old man's room for
thinks his blue hazy eye can see the inside of the narrator. Each night when he goes
to kill the man, the man's eye is open, making the narrator think the old man is

watching him.
 ENGLISH FOR ABILITY ENHANCEMENT IV (Semester-V
34

most intense part of the story. Here the

The climax of a story is usually the he has killa
old man. He thinks that once
led
climax occurs when the narrator kills the
him anymore.
him the old man will not be able to see

climax. The falling action ties

The falling action of a story comes right after the s.

Here the falling action

occurs when the narr
everything up and ends the story. rrator
he has just killed him. The police are
"hears" the old man's heart beating, although are
or the dead man's heart gettine
talking the narrator, and he hears the beating
to

louder and louder. The narrator finally admits to what he has done and tells tha
police to tear up the floorboards
to find the "beating heart."
What are three examples of irony in the story "The Tell-Tale
Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe?
In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," there are many examples
of irony. There is verbal irony in the opening lines of the story when the narrator
claims he is perfectly sane, before telling the story of how he killed an old man he
was supposed to love, by his own admission, just because he didn't like his eye.
"Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had
never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I
think it was his eye!"
Sane people don't murder people for any reason, and certainly not because of
one physical
anomaly. It is verbal irony, because a person would never hurt another
person whom they love. So his decision to murder the old
man, while at the same
time claiming to love him, is an
example of saying the opposite
of what is realiy
meant.

Another example of irony in this

story is dramatic irony. The readers are awac
of the plot, that the narrator has
to kill the old
man, but the old man is completely
unaware. There is also dramatic
irony when the policemen come to the d0O in
response to screams and are
completely unaware that the old man is in the floorboa s
beneath them, but the audience
knows, because the narrator has revealed
There is situational 1
irony when the officers come to the house, he
audience sees the narrator as Wol old
man is, and
coming up with a plausible story about where
u
about the screams that neighbors heard. Readers see
him calmiy atting
ENGLISH FOR ABILITY
ENHANCEMENT IV (Semester-VI)
with the officers over 35
tea. It seems like he's going to
his own conscience betrays him get away with murder. But then
as he
beating. He tells the truth imagines he can hear the old man's heart
about what he did.
"Villains! Dissemble no more! I
admit the deed! Tear up the
here! It is the beating of his hideous planks! Here-
heart!"
How does the narrator get rid of the blood in The Tell-Tale
Heart?
Having killed the old man, the unreliable narrator sets about disposing of the
body. He dismembers the corpse to make it much easier to conceal. The narrator

give the appearance of being mad (it can be argued whether he's insane not;
or
may
and so
he's certainly trying to convince the reader of his sanity), but he's not stupid,
however. If you've ever
the last thing he wants is to be caught. There's a problem,
involved in
know just how much blood is
watched TV shows like "C.S.I." you'll then
of the old man's blood is discovered,
such a procedure. just
grisly If one spot
a murderer.
the narrator will be exposed as
makes sure that a tub has caught
already thought of that. He
But the narrator's brutal murder
rather pleased with his cover-up of the
The narrator is murder
all of the blood. that he's gotten away
with
so confident
In fact, he's
into his home when they
committed. come
he's just officers
hesitation in inviting police
that he has no

his door
knocking at