The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan 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. Crime and criminal cannot be and should not be hidden.
Summary:
The narrator claims that he is not mad as he could hear things in the heaven, earth and hell. To justify himself saint, he confesses dangerous crime he has committed. The narrator and the old man used to reside together; they had very good relationship. The man used to love the old man very much. The old man also used to treat him well. The only thing that irritated the narrator was the eyes of him which were pale and vulture like. To end the consequences, he went to the old man's room continuously for seven days. But returned, as he could not see the eyes of the man. In the morning he spoke politely and behaved as if nothing had happened. On the eighth nights, he as usual went there with torchlight. He did every thing stealthy and cautiously. Despite it, he happened to touch tin fastening, which dropped and disturbed the sleep of the man. In desperation, he asked who it was. The narrator remained speechless and motionless. A little later his sense brought him the reason that the old man was asleep again, he aimed the beam towards the old man's eyes. As he saw them, he grew angry. He then, jumped towards the man, dragged the man and pressed his neck with bed. At last, he dismembered the old man's dead body and put it under the plank. After it, he cleaned the place spotlessly clean. It was already four when he finished the task. At four, the three policemen came because someone had heard a shriek and informed them to investigate. The narrator lied them that the shriek was his own in dream and the old man was absent for some days. He welcomed them, brought them to his room and took to every nook and corner of his house. The policemen didn't suspect any wrong there. The narrator took them to the spot where he had hidden the corpse of the old man. He cordially asked them to sit on the chair, which he had kept there. He sat there just over the plank whereas policeman continued talking with smiling face. The narrator, at the mean time, heard tick-tick sound of a watch coming from beneath. He mistook it as the heart-beat of the old man. He desired to reduce the loudness of the sound. For this purpose, he spoke louder; though it didn't do any good. He felt the sound growing; he felt the policemen’s smile as the smile of mockery. It became unbearable for him to keep the reality secret. He thought it better to confess than to hide. Eventually he confessed the crime.
Q.Was the narrator mad?
I think the narrator is mad because a sane person wouldn’t kill somebody like that just because he doesn’t like his eyes. It wouldn’t be any logical cause to kill a person. Again, he wanted to kill the old man when his eyes are opened. He didn’t kill him while his eyes were open. He killed the old man but thought his heart was beating and he himself revealed his crime without any compulsion.
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.
Q Why does narrator develop intense hatred against the old man? Would you call the narrator mad? Give reasons for your answer. [059-10]
In this story the old man loved the boy but the boy hated his eyes. He hated his eyes so much because he called his eyes as pale vulture eyes. He used to afraid with the old man’s eyes. When the old man looked at the boy, his blood became cold. Therefore the boy killed the old man just because he didn’t like the old man’s eyes.
The activities of the boy justify that he is insane or mad. A sane man never kills another person just because his eyes. It couldn’t be a proper reason to kill a person. The narrator killed the old man and buried but he thought his heart was beating when he heard the tick-tick sound of the watch. He confessed his crime without any compulsion.
Q.What made the narrator confess his crime? [062-3][065-3]
The narrator of the story seems to be mad because without any compulsion he revealed his crime. Neither the police nor the other people suspected over him, but his self-fear caused him to reveal his crime before the police. He couldn’t control his heart and his heart told the truth. When the police asked to other people, he thought they were just pretending not asking to him. When he heard the tick-tick sound of the watch from his grave he felt his heart is still beating and he revealed his crime.
Q. Describe the scene when the narrator killed the old man. [064-3]
Te boy went into the old man’s room at night and he made him wake up. He looked at his eyes and he became too furious and killed the old man. He cut his body into three pieces and buried under his floor. He had kept his body so secretly that nobody could suspect over the murder.
Q. Describe the scene when the narrator killed the old man.
When the narrator decided to kill the old man, every night, about midnight, he turned the latch of the old man’s door and opened it gently. Then he pushed his head from the door and sent a ray of light of his lantern to the old man’s eye very slowly so that he might not disturb the old men’s sleep. It took him an hour to place his head within the opening. He did such work for seven long nights but he found the old man’s evil eye always closed and every morning he went to the old man’s room, spoke calling him by name in a hearty tone and inquiring how he had passed the night. On the eighth night the boy was very careful to do such things. But when he pushed his head from the opening to see the old man and was about to open the lantern, his thumb slipped upon the tin fastening and the old man jumped up in bed crying out “Who is there?” The boy stood still saying nothing. He became a symbolic shadow for the death of the old man. He waited for some time very patiently. Then, being courageous, he threw open the lantern and leaped into the room, the old man cried once only. He killed him quickly, dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over the dead body. Then he removed the bed and examined the corpse but the old man was stone dead. Then the boy thought that the old man’s eye, would trouble him no more. He wanted to hide his crime. So he cut off the head, arms and legs of the corpse. He put the pieces of the dead body under the three wooden planks in the same room. There was no stain of the murder, no blood spot. He finished all that work at four o’clock in the morning.
Q. Justify the title “The Tale Tell Heart”.
In this detective story, A E. Poe presents a n strange narrator. The narrator boy seems to be a mad one. He couldn’t control over his heart and his heart told the entire crime story without any compulsion. Crime is revealed from his heart. It means the heart of a criminal couldn’t control his heart. Crime can’t be and shouldn’t be hidden. So the title of the story is appropriate to is theme. Again he felt that the heart is beating and revealed his crime.
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Credential: Dr. Ramesh Adhikari
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