The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was published in 1843. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is an American short-story writer, poet and critic. He is best known for his tales of mystery and horror. Among his poems, Annabel Lee and The Raven are the most famous.
The title of the short story The Tell-Tale Heart gives readers a hint as to what the story is about. It is indeed a "tale", so a work of fiction, narrated by an anonymous person. The adjective "tell-tale" means "revealing", often revealing a secret. So in this case the heart is supposed to reveal a secret. Whose and why ? The narrator tells the reader very little about himself. The series of events recounted in the story are all seen from his point of view. We never hear the other characters (the old man, the police). Poe thus gives the reader an insight into his character's deluded mind. Indeed, when in the first two lines of the story, he addresses the reader directly "why will you say that I am mad ?", the reader knows that the speaker is indeed mad (the question is not "will you say that I am mad" but "why"). The story is bound to answer his question.
The narrator confesses to having killed an old man because of his "Evil eye". To justify his hideous deed, the narrator, when referring to his victim, merely mentions "the eye" or "the vulture eye", nothing else. The murderer then explains how he dismembered the body and concealed it under some floorboards. When the police arrive to investigate, he is at first quite calm but soon he can hear a sound which he is convinced they can hear too. He is sure this noise is the beating of the old man's heart so he ends up confessing to the police.
The heart was indeed the tell-tale sign revealing the narrator's crime and the story does answer his question in the opening paragraph. Only a madman would behave in this way. What makes his crime even more frightening is that his motivation makes no sense. "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". He is clearly deluded but does not realise and on the contrary claims to be quite lucid and clever :" Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this…".
At the end of the story, he is the only one who can hear this sound, which, to him only, is "louder ! louder ! louder ! louder !". Is the beating of the old man's heart simply the voice of his conscience ? Mad as he might be, he cannot stand concealing his crime and has to confess, and ironically he exclaims to the police "Villains !... dissemble no more !"
Poe's mastery as a story teller is obvious in this short text : the reader knows from the very first lines that a crime has been committed and by whom. This is not a story of detection but rather a study in the nature of madness, guilt and the power of one's conscience.
