a tell tale heart essay

Poe's Stories

Edgar allan poe, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is a Gothic novel in miniature. All of the elements of the Gothic novel are here: the subterranean secret, the Gothic space (scaled down from a full-blown castle to a single room), the gruesome crime – even the hovering between the supernatural and the psychological.

In just five pages, it’s as if Edgar Allan Poe has scaled down the eighteenth-century Gothic novel into a story of just a few thousand words. But what makes this story so unsettling?

Closer analysis reveals that ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ centres on that most troubling of things: the motiveless murder.

First, a brief summary of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. An unnamed narrator confesses that he has murdered an old man, apparently because of the old man’s ‘Evil Eye’ which drove the narrator to kill him. He then describes how he crept into the old man’s bedroom while he slept and stabbed him, dragging the corpse away and dismembering it, so as to conceal his crime.

He goes to some lengths to cover up all trace of the murder – he even caught his victim’s blood in a tub, so that none was spilt anywhere – and then he takes up three of the floorboards of the chamber, and conceals his victim’s body underneath. But no sooner has he concealed the body than there’s a knock at the door: it’s the police, having been called out by a neighbour who heard a shriek during the night.

The narrator lets the police officers in to search the premises, and tells them a lie about the old man being away in the country. He keeps his calm while showing them around, until they go and sit down in the room below which the victim’s body is concealed.

The narrator and the police officers talk, but gradually the narrator begins to hear a ringing in his ears, a noise that becomes louder and more insistent. He believes that it is the beating of the dead man’s heart, taunting him from beyond the grave. Eventually, he can’t stand it any more, and tells the police to tear up the floorboards, the sound of the old man’s beating heart driving him to confess his crime.

The narrator of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is clearly unstable, as the end of the story reveals, but his mental state is questionable right from the start, as the jerky syntax of his narrative suggests:

True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

The multiple dashes, the unusual syntactical arrangement, the exclamation and question marks: all suggest someone who is, at the very least, excitable. His repeated protestations that he is sane and merely subject to ‘over acuteness of the senses’ don’t fully convince: there is too much in his manner (to say nothing of his baseless murder of the old man) to suggest otherwise.

A motiveless crime?

And indeed, what makes ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ especially chilling – and here we might draw a parallel with another of Poe’s best-known tales, ‘The Black Cat’ – is that the killer freely confesses that his murder of the old man was a motiveless crime:

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! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees –  very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

Murder is never justified, but it is sometimes understandable when a person has been driven to extremes and isn’t thinking clearly. But Poe’s narrator didn’t even kill the old man for something as cynical as financial gain. Even his proffered motive – the old man’s ‘Evil Eye’ – is weak. He has to convince himself that that was why he did it, after the fact : ‘I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!’ (our emphasis).

One can imagine a police detective doing a double-take in the interview room. ‘You think it was his eye?’ This alone makes it clear that we are dealing with an unhinged mind, somebody who, to borrow from Bob Dylan, ‘killed for no reason’. Motiveless murderers are often the most unsettling.

Consider the ‘motiveless malignity’ of Iago , perhaps Shakespeare’s finest villain, who offers a number of potential motives for wanting to destroy the lives of Othello and Desdemona, and in doing so reveals that he very probably doesn’t have a real motive – other than wishing to cause trouble for the hell of it.

Poe and  Macbeth

But Othello is not Poe’s main Shakespearean intertext for ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. Closer analysis of the story reveals that an important precursor-text to ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, and probable influence on Poe, is William Shakespeare’s Macbeth .

Both texts centre on the murder of an ‘old man’; in both cases, the murderer is driven to feel guilt over his crime by being ‘haunted’ by his victim from beyond the grave (Banquo’s ghost in Macbeth , the old man’s beating heart in Poe’s story); both Macbeth and Poe’s narrator show signs of being at least a little mentally unstable; in both texts, the murder of the victim is followed by a knocking at the door.

But what makes Poe’s tale especially effective is the way he employs doubling to suggest that it is perfectly natural that the narrator should be paranoid about the sound coming from the floorboards. For before he had murdered the old man, the narrator had imagined his victim ‘trying to comfort himself’ when he heard a noise outside his bedroom:

All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim.

But of course this is really the narrator projecting his own unease around sounds; and it thus foreshadows his later paranoia over the supposed sound coming from under the floorboards – the sound that will drive him to confess to his crime.

But along with the ‘motiveless’ nature of the narrator’s crime, the other aspect of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ which makes it such a powerful analysis of the nature of crime and guilt is the slight ambiguity hovering over that sound which taunts the narrator at the end of the story.

An ambiguous tale

It seems most likely that the sound exists only in his head, since the policemen are apparently oblivious to it as they continue to chat away calmly to the narrator. (This is the one real weak point in Poe’s story: once they’ve searched the premises they appear to hang around to make small talk with the narrator. Haven’t they got more important things to do? Unless the narrator isn’t as calm at this point as he believes, and they suspect foul play and are trying to get him to reveal something incriminating…)

But we cannot be entirely sure. Even if the sound is supernatural in origin – and Poe was obviously a master of the supernatural, as several of his other best stories attest – it may be that his victim is making his ghostly heartbeat heard only to the narrator, burrowing away deep within his mind.

But on balance we’re tempted to think that Poe, along with Dickens around the same time (compare the studied analysis of the murderer Jonas Chuzzlewit’s mind as he flees the scene), is pioneering a new kind of approach to the ‘ghost story’ here – one in which the ‘ghost’ is no more than a hallucination or phantom of the character’s mind.

Although such ambiguity had been used to good effect by Shakespeare, in the ghost story it is Poe, in such stories as ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, who used this ambiguous plot detail to offer a deeper, more unsettling analysis of the nature of conscience.

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

Type your email…

6 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’”

Wonderful article! When I studied Poe in college my premise for one of my best papers centered on whether or not the murderer was sane or insane and even used “Methinks he protests too much” at the end. I believe I could’ve written several papers on this short story alone with several different topics. Again, wonderful article.

Thank you! Good Hamlet allusion too – one of the triumphs of Poe’s story, I think, is the instability of his narrator. Glad you enjoyed our analysis :)

Ahhhhh…and now here you have brought forth one of my most beloved tale tellers. Poe has influenced not only my own tales but my early life as well. Terrific analysis! The ambiguous nature of the conscience brought to fever pitch. :)

Thank you! It’s one of the real gems among Poe’s tales – and as you say, he’s a great tale-teller so there are quite a few to choose from :)

I’ve wondered if the heartbeat was the narrator’s own, since he was in a state of agitation and excitement while talking to the policemen. In any case, it’s a great story, and this is an interesting analysis.

• Pingback: A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Black Cat’ | Interesting Literature

Comments are closed.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

(92) 336 3216666

[email protected]

• The Tell Tale Heart

Background of the Story

“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story by Edgar Allan Poe written in 1843. It is about a murderer who tries to persuade his readers of his mental stability while telling the tale of the brutish act. He denies that he suffers from some mental illness and openly boasts of his cleverness and cunning behavior. He kills an old man though he loves him. He holds no grudges against him and murders him without any motive.

The old man’s “vulture-eye” makes the narrator angry and he decides to kill him. He attends to every minute detail in the process of murder; carefully kills him, disjoints every part of his body, and then buries the body parts underground in the room. He also receives the policemen with utmost comfort but, slowly and gradually, his anxiety increases. His guilty conscience constantly pricks him and reminds him of his brutal act. Eventually, he cannot bear the secret anymore and confesses his crime to the policemen.

The untrustworthy narrator does not have a solid reason to murder the old man (apart from his hatred for the old man’s eye). Furthermore, Poe has not given us detail about the narrator’s relationship with the old man. We do not know, as readers, whether the narrator is a male or a female. Poe only focuses on the events and situations which lead to the killing rather than focusing on individuals.

The story is one of the classics of Poe’s short stories and of its genre. The setting and diction used in the story make it a classic Poe story. The story is a proof of human being’s inherently evil nature. The unreliable narrator in the story brutally murders the old man irrationally and without any reason. The story also explores the paranoiac state of mind of the narrator.

The Tell Tale Heart Summary

At the start of the story, the narrator is answering an imaginary listener. He confesses that he has been ill but denies the fact that he is insane. Furthermore, he announces that the illness has given him more strength especially to his “sense of hearing”. He tells the imaginary listener that he is more vigilant now and is able to hear everything. Then he tells the listener to listen carefully as he narrates the story.

He confesses that there was no motive for what he did. He loved the old man who never harmed him. The motive behind the murder was not his wealth and gold, however, one of his eyes made him kill the old man. He hated his vulture-like eye and it persuaded him to murder the old man. The narrator says that the old man’s eye angered him so he made up his mind to kill him to shut that eye once and for all.

Again he tries to prove his sanity by admitting that he planned carefully to murder the old man making us aware that an insane person cannot plan. He informs his readers that for seven continuous nights he would go into the old man’s room, quietly, and would wait for the exact moment to commit the crime. He would examine the old man’s eye with the help of his lantern and would find it close. He would return annoyingly as it is his “Evil Eye” which motivates him to murder him. Ironically, in the morning he would ask the old man how he spent the night.

He continues with the story and tells us that on the night of the murder he went to the old man’s room with more caution. He wonders at his cunning plan and laughs at the old man’s lack of awareness. Out of nowhere, the old man sensed something and moved. The narrator tells us that he did not feel afraid as he knew the old man could not see him in the darkness. He, quietly, entered the room. The old man suspected something and asked who was in the room.

The narrator informs us that he did not move an inch for an hour knowing that the old man is alert. Then he hears a frightening cry from the old man sitting alert in his bed. He tells us that the old man knows not of his presence but he can assume his death impending upon him. Afterwards, he gradually puts light on the old man and realizes that his hateful eye is open. It makes him angry. He does not notice his face because he is not interested in it rather it is his eye that troubles him. The sight of his eye fills him with rage.

Furthermore, as he boasts of his increased hearing sense, he hears the beating of the victim’s heart. He tries to stay calm but the beating of the old man’s heart increases his anger. The narrator becomes anxious and is unable to bear his heartbeat anymore. The narrator takes the help of the bedsheets and holds it firmly “over his head”. The old man, slowly and gradually, suffocates and his heartbeat stops. The narrator takes a sigh of relief knowing that his eye will never trouble him again.

He again challenges those who question his sanity and tells them that they should consider how he hid the dead body so as no one can find it. He disjoints every part of the dead body carefully. Then he removes the planks and hides the pieces there cautiously making sure nothing is left behind. Afterwards, he puts the planks down again, with great care, so that no one can get a clue of their removal.

When he finishes, the clock strikes four in the morning. Someone knocks at the door. He calmly opens the door and realizes that three policemen have arrived. They have been called upon by one of the neighbors who heard the shriek of the old man. They are here to investigate any mishap. He receives them calmly and tells them that he shrieked because of a nightmare. He escorts them all over the house and tells them to do their search. He even leads them to the old man’s room and offers them chairs to sit there and rest.

He confesses that his calm demeanor made the cops believe his explanation and they sat calmly there. They chat continuously and after a while, the narrator wishes they should depart. Slowly and gradually, he becomes anxious and his calmness fades away. In the meantime, he hears some sound. At first, he perceives it to be inside his head but then he realizes that the sound is not internal rather it is in the room. He talks louder and causes commotion in the room to cover it up but it gets louder with the passage of time.

He walks to and fro in the room to make some noise but its intensity increases. However, the policemen seem not to hear it and they are busy chatting and smiling as usual. The narrator thinks the policemen know and they are laughing at his stupidity. He says he constantly suffered because of their smiles and hearing that sound. Eventually, he cannot stand it anymore and confesses his crime. He tells the policemen to uncover the planks and they will find the mutilated body of the old man and his pumping heart.

Mental Health

Poe’s story shows its readers the importance of mental health. The story demonstrates that mental illness can drive a person to the vilest acts. Psychological problems can lead individuals to act dangerously without any motive. The narrator, in the story, suffers from some mental problems which lead to his destruction.

He, time and again, denies the fact that he suffers from mental illness but his awkward actions prove that he suffers from some psychological problem. He is obsessed with killing the old man for no apparent reason and scrutinizes him for seven successive nights. The narrator, being paranoiac, kills the old man out of fear but that is not an acceptable reason.

Furthermore, he also enjoys the moment when he suffocates the old man, holding the bed sheets tightly over his face. This event makes him a sadist; who enjoys inflicting pain on others. This event also shows that he has some psychological problems. Through these events, Poe demonstrates the idea that an individual’s psychological health is as important as his physical health.

Guilt is another significant theme in the story. Although the narrator does not feel guilty of his crime openly, however, it is his guilty conscience which leads him to confess his crime. At first, he murders the old man in his room and calmly hides his dead body underground. Then he calmly receives the policemen and leads them across the house. However, in the hearts of his heart, he feels nervous with the passage of time.

Slowly and gradually, he hears sounds which he did not hear previously. He becomes anxious and tries to evade the sounds by making a commotion. However, his guilt does not leave him until he confesses his crime. He is of the opinion that the heartbeat is that of the old man’s heart but actually it is his own heart pumping with guilt. Externally, he enjoys killing the old man but his guilty conscience does not let him enjoy the brutal act.

Confinement

The theme of confinement is central to the story. The actions in the story are confined to a house only. Neither the narrator nor the old man go outside the house throughout the story. The narrator wants to break this confinement by murdering the old man but is unsuccessful. He murders the old man but never breaks his confinement.

The narrator thinks he will escape the life of confinement by killing the old man who is a threat to his freedom, according to him, but never succeeds. Instead, after killing he becomes more confined to the old man’s room. First, he would roam around the house but after killing him, he sits with the policemen in the old man’s room. He does not leave the room until he confesses his crime.

This confinement can imply that the narrator’s own psych has imprisoned him and he is unable to escape it. He thought he would gain freedom by killing the old man unaware of the fact that it is his mental confinement rather than his physical which never lets him free.

Characters Analysis

Characters are people who have some individual traits in a piece of writing. Without characters, a piece of literature looks dull. They are mouthpieces for a writer through which a writer expresses their opinions about a particular issue. Characters provide them with an outlet to contribute to the social structure. Some characters are major characters on which the writer focuses more while others are minor characters who have a supporting role in a piece of writing. 

Poe’s story revolves around the unreliable narrator who murders an old man for no apparent reason. Other characters in the story are not significant. The detailed analysis of his character is given below;

The Narrator

Poe does not give us information about the narrator’s gender. We, as readers, do not know whether he is a male or a female. We assume that he is a male and that is why we use the pronoun “He” for the narrator. After reading the story we conclude that he has many problems in his character; he suffers from paranoia, he is nervous and has some physical as well as mental illness. He tries to prove his sanity for the most part of the story.

After reading the story, we assume that the narrator acts according to his natural impulses. The narrator murders the old man because he thinks the old man is a threat to his individual freedom. Being paranoiac, the narrator assumes the old man is always trying to harm him, although he confesses that he has never harmed him, he acts in advance and takes his life. He murders the old man due to his own fear.

Furthermore, the narrator suffers from some kind of physical instability. His ears are hypersensitive and he hears sounds which others do not hear. We, as readers, do not know about his past and cannot claim that he suffers from some ailment but his awkward behavior and his physical instability make us think he is not physically fit.

As Poe lived most of his life in the southern United States we can, contextually, assume that the narrator is a “Southern Gothic Hero”. The narrator may have a master-slave relationship with the old man. It may be the case that the old man as a ‘master’ mistreats the narrator as a ‘slave’. This may have urged the narrator to murder the old man to get rid of his authoritative behavior.

Lastly, the narrator may be a sadist; ‘a person who derives pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting pain or humiliation on others’, and to fulfill his sadistic impulses he may have murdered the old man without any apparent reason.

The narrator’s character in the story is an enigmatic one and arises many questions in the readers’ minds. The above analysis is not blunt realities about his characters but mere assumptions.

Literary Analysis

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story poses many questions to be answered by the readers. The reality of the narrator, the motive behind his murder, his relationship with the old man, and the issues of his mental and physical health are to be discussed in this analysis section.

The narrator is an unreliable person having no specific name. Even we do not know about his gender. Most of the critics believe that the narrator is a male, as was the norm at that time, however, others believe that it may be a female character who narrates the story. The narrator acts illogically throughout the story and follows his instincts rather than his reason. On the basis of these qualities, some critics believe that the narrator might be a female because irrationality and emotionality were associated with women at that time. Poe focuses more on the events in the story rather than the individuals, so he leaves it open for his readers to decide whether the narrator is a male or a female.

There seems to be no motive behind the narrator murdering the old man except for the old man’s ‘Evil Eye’ which the narrator dislikes. However, this excuse is not strong enough to take someone’s life. Critics believe that the narrator suffers from paranoia and his paranoiac personality leads him to commit the murder. A paranoiac person feels fear of others all the time. Same is the case with the narrator in the story. He feels afraid of the old man though he has never harmed him. In order to counter his fear, he kills the old man without any apparent reason.

On the other hand, the narrator may want individual freedom and that is why he kills the old man. He confesses himself that he was not targeting the old man’s gold or money. He may be struggling to gain freedom which may seem impossible if the old man lives so he decides to kill him. Ironically, he becomes more confined after murdering the old man. Consequently, we can say that there is no apparent reason for murdering the old man. These are mere speculations.

There are diverse opinions about the relationship between the narrator and the old man. They both live in the same house. The narrator loves the old man until he murders him. The old man never harms the narrator. Some critics opine that there is a master-slave relationship between the two. The old man serves as the master and the narrator is a slave to him. As the old man’s ‘Evil Eye’ is the object of hatred for the narrator, this relationship makes sense. The ‘Evil Eye’ represents the dominance of the old man which the narrator never accepts, so he tries to kill him to gain freedom.

Other critics believe that there is a father-son relationship between the two. However, according to my understanding of the story, this assumption is a little weak. Why, on earth, will a son kill his own father so brutally if he loves him and his father never harms him. It may happen, in some cases, but is not true for this story. A son will never go to such extremes to gain freedom from his father, according to my opinion. Finally, Poe leaves this relationship open for the readers to decide.

Furthermore, the narrator throughout the story tries to prove his sanity but his actions and his words are enough for the readers to conclude that he suffers from physical as well as mental problems. He leaves no stone unturned to prove that he is not a mad person but his actions prove otherwise. He gives logical reasons for his irrational act but fails. His motiveless murder, his sadistic attitude during the murder, and his calm demeanor after the murder prove that he suffers from some psychological problem.

He plans the murder methodically and never gives the old man a clue about his plan. However, he kills the old man without any evident reason which shows his psychological instability. His paranoiac mentality urges him to kill the old man before he could harm him. The motiveless murder also throws light on his sadistic personality. He enjoys inflicting pain upon others. He also enjoys mutilating the old man’s dead body. He does not shudder or feel any fear of doing this hideous act.

The narrator’s brutal act also refers to the inherently evil nature of human beings. He murders the old man without any rationale. This refers to the idea of the ‘Original sin’ which means that every human being has the tendency to sin or do evil acts, without any reason, because they are born sinners. William Golding in his novel Lord of the Flies also explores this idea of human being’s evil nature from birth. We can associate these ideas with the narrator as he kills the old man without any motive.

Poe’s story is a classic horror story. All elements of Gothic fiction are present in the story. The hidden corpse, the supernatural setting of the story, the horrible murder, and the mentally unstable protagonist, all these elements make it a classic example of Gothic fiction. The narrator, who is the protagonist of the story, suffers from some psychological problem and commits a murder without any obvious reason. He hears sounds which no one else hears, leading to the fact that he suffers from some mental problem.

Mystery and fear is another element of Gothic fiction which is also present in the story. The narrator, himself, is an enigmatic personality who no one knows fully. He has no name and no specific gender. He is paranoiac and his fear of being harmed leads him to murder the innocent old man. The setting of the story also conforms to the idea of Gothic fiction. The story is set in a bizarre and strange house with no detailed description. The narrator commits the murder in a dark room. The underground hiding of the corpse adds to the canny setting of the story.

The supernatural elements also add to the Gothic form in the story. The pounding heart of the dead old man comes to haunt the narrator. Whether it is the heartbeat of the old man’s heart or the narrator’s own heart is debatable, however, it increases the narrator’s anxiety. It haunts him until he confesses his crime to the policemen.

As Poe lived in times when Romanticism was at its peak so the influence of Romanticism is pretty much there in his fiction. He wrote about the strange and bizarre things and neglected literature for a didactic approach. He focused on emotions rather than rationale and wrote literature which had a direct effect on feelings and emotions. The narrator in the story acts according to his intuitions and does not care about the consequences. The Romantic influence on his writings is greater in this regard.

Settings in Romantic literature are some strange places and “The Tell-Tale Heart” is no exception. The story is, mainly, set in a horrible and bizarre room full of darkness. Poe believed that the greatest art should be set in a place which is different from the ordinary world and most of his stories are set in places which are out of this world, literally.

The influence of Romanticism is evident in Poe’s characterization. Most of his main characters have no names and no genders. The narrator in the story is also deprived of any name or gender. He focused on the overall effect of his art rather than on individuals’ importance. Lastly, the subject matter is also peculiar and unusual. According to Romantic writers, mundane subjects have no place in literature. Poe, himself hated ordinary and common subjects and dealt with the unusual. So he wrote about those subjects which amazed the common readers. He wrote literature that was horrific and not ordinary. The influence of Romanticism is evident in his writings.

The title of the story is significant. It points to the hearts of both the old man and the narrator. The old man’s heart beats rapidly when he perceives someone in his room. His heart awakens him to the danger in the room. However, the narrator gets furious and murders the old man. The next time, the pounding of the heart comes from the underground. This assumption is false because underground lies the mutilated body of the old man. This actually is the pounding of the narrator’s own heart. The narrator is nervous and his pumping heart reminds him of his guilty act. The heart “tells tales”, one of fear and the other of guilt.

The story is set in a house we, as readers know little of. Poe does not describe the house fully to his readers. The murder takes place in the bedroom of the old man which is dark and horrific.

Writing style

The structure and style of the story are very compact. It can be read in one sitting. The language is simple and there are seemingly no archaic words. There is a mixture of long and short sentences. The choice of words completely fits the subject matter in the story. Poe uses very authentic words to convey his idea in the best possible manner. It makes a powerful impact on the reader. 

All the events and situations comfortably lead to the climax in the story and then pass that intent into the befitting ending. The sentences are well connected and they fittingly play their role in taking the story to the desired ending. There is not a single loose thread. The sentences contribute to the overall effect of the story. The writer very tactfully makes this story powerful by the authentic use of language.

Point of View

The story is told by an untrustworthy narrator in the first person. For the most part of the story, he tries to prove that he does not suffer from some mental problems. Throughout the story, he tries to justify his irrational actions logically.

The tone of the story is gloomy and anxious. Though the narrator is a murderer yet the readers feel sympathy for him as he suffers from severe psychological problems. After the murder, he suffers from nervousness and feels guilty of his crime. The melancholic tone of the story is intermixed with the nervous feelings of the narrator.

The old man’s eye is the sole object of hatred for the narrator. He wants to shut it forever. If we assume that the relationship between the two is that of a master and slave then the eye represents the authoritative gaze of the master. The narrator shuts it to free himself from the dominance of the master. However, if the narrator is a female then the eye represents the authoritative gaze of a dominant male. The narrator then wanted to free herself of male dominance and murdered the old man.

On the other hand, the narrator refers to the eye of the old man as ‘vulture-like’. Vultures like to eat sick or dead animals. As a paranoiac, the narrator fears the old man will harm him so he acts to counter his fear and murders him to protect himself from being devoured.

The Bed and Bedroom

The bed and bedroom are the places of comfort and warmth generally. However, Edgar Allan Poe negates all the comfort associated with the bed and bedroom. The narrator openly spies on the old man when he sleeps in his room. He breaches all the norms of one’s bedroom and does not consider the privacy of the old man. Ironically, the bedroom becomes a place of agony for the old man. The narrator uses bed sheets as murder weapons to suffocate the old man and hides his body underground.

The house represents the subconscious of the narrator. When he hides the mutilated body of the old man underground, he symbolically hides his crime in his subconscious. Nonetheless, we can retrieve the information hidden in our subconscious mind. Same is the case with the narrator. His pounding heart reminds him of his own guilt and never stops until he confesses his crime to the policemen.

Poe uses irony to great effect in the story. Firstly, the narrator murders the old man because he hates his “vulture eye” and he deems it a flaw in his character. However, the narrator negates the fact that he also suffers from paranoia which is a severe flaw than the “vulture eye” of the old man. A person with severe illness murders a person with less severe physical flaws is ironic.

Secondly, the narrator boasts of his sanity and leaves no stone unturned to provide details that will prove his sanity to the readers. On the other hand, he gives a detailed analysis of how he murdered the old man without any reason. It is ironic because a healthy and sound person will never kill another person.He also confesses that he loves the old man who has never harmed him yet he brutally kills him. This is ironic because how can a person brutally kill a person he loves and who has never harmed him.

A person’s bedroom is a place of privacy and comfort for an individual. Poe makes the bedroom of the old man his death place, which is ironic. The narrator breaches all norms of the old man’s privacy and kills him in his own bedroom. Ironically, he uses his bed as a murdering weapon. He suffocates the old man using his bedsheets and hides his disjointed body underground in his bedroom. The old man’s bedroom, a place of warmth and comfort, becomes his graveyard.

In a nutshell, Edgar Allan Poe very tactfully conveys his message in this short story. He gives his readers an insight into the paranoiac mind of a person. Through this story, he enables his readers to not be deceived by outward expressions of an individual as he may be harmful to them inwardly. He also throws light on the significance of the mental health of an individual. He opines that psychological health is more important than physical health because it can lead individuals to their own destruction.

More From Edgar Allan Poe

• A Dream Within a Dream

Short Stories

• The Masque of the Red Death
• The Fall of the House of Usher

English Studies

This website is dedicated to English Literature, Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, English Language and its teaching and learning.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Analysis

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843, is a haunting short story not contained within a specific collection.

Introduction: “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Table of Contents

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843, is a haunting short story not contained within a specific collection. It’s a psychological thriller narrated by an unnamed character who insists on their sanity despite describing a meticulously planned murder. The story centers on the narrator’s obsession with the victim’s pale eye and a growing fixation on a sound they believe to be the old man’s beating heart, creating a chilling atmosphere of suspense and unease. As the story progresses, the line between the narrator’s perceived sanity and their deteriorating mental state blurs, leaving the reader to question the truth and grapple with the themes of guilt and madness.

Main Events in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

The Narrator’s Obsession and Murderous Plan:

• The unnamed narrator insists on his sanity despite describing a premeditated murder.
• He becomes fixated on the old man’s pale blue eye with a film over it, calling it a “vulture eye.”
• The narrator denies any motive like passion, greed, or insult, claiming it’s solely the eye that drives him to kill.
• Over several days, the narrator meticulously plans the murder, entering the old man’s room each night to find him asleep.

The Murder and Hiding the Evidence:

• On the eighth night, the narrator accidentally startles the old man awake but manages to keep him still in the dark.
• The narrator describes a growing sense of triumph as he prepares to commit the murder.
• He becomes fixated on a low beating sound, which he believes is the old man’s terrified heart growing louder.
• In a frenzy, the narrator throws open the lantern and murders the old man.
• After the murder, the narrator displays a chilling calmness as he dismembers the body with meticulous care.
• He hides the body parts under the floorboards, confident no human eye could detect anything wrong.

Police Investigation and the Narrator’s Descent:

• The police arrive to investigate a scream heard by a neighbor, arousing suspicion.
• The narrator remains confident and welcomes the officers, inviting them to search the entire house.
• He even leads them to the old man’s room and shows them his undisturbed belongings.
• The narrator’s confidence grows as the officers seem satisfied with his explanations.
• However, the narrator begins to feel increasingly anxious and believes he hears the beating of the old man’s heart growing louder.
• His attempts to appear calm and talkative fail as the sound intensifies in his own mind.
• Driven to the brink, the narrator accuses the officers of mocking him and confesses to the murder, revealing the body’s hiding place.

Literary Devices in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Characterization in “the tell-tale heart” by edgar allan poe.

The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is a complex and unreliable character. Here’s a breakdown of his characterization using examples from the story:

1. Mentally Unstable:

• Example: “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am…” (Paragraph 1). The narrator readily admits his nervousness, which hints at a larger mental issue.
• Example: “How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” (Paragraph 1). He contradicts himself by claiming sanity while exhibiting erratic behavior.

2. Obsessive:

• Example: “It was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” (Paragraph 2). He fixates on a minor physical detail, the old man’s eye, to an unhealthy degree.
• Example: “Every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it—oh, so gently!” (Paragraph 3). The repetition of his nightly routine highlights his obsessive planning and actions.

3. Deceptive:

• Example: “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.” (Paragraph 3). He hides his true intentions by feigning kindness towards the victim.
• Example: “The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them.” (Paragraph 18). He deceives the police with a confident demeanor despite his inner turmoil.

4. Unreliable Narrator:

• Example: “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.” (Paragraph 2). This statement is contradicted by his plan to murder the old man.
• Example: “…every night just at midnight, I looked in upon him while he slept.” (Paragraph 3). He claims the eye bothers him, yet sneaks in nightly even when the eye is closed.

5. Deteriorating Mental State:

• Example: “Ha!—would a madman have been so wise as this?” (Paragraph 3). He questions his own sanity while trying to convince the reader otherwise.
• Example: “Villains! I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!” (Paragraph 19). His mental state crumbles as he confesses the crime due to heightened auditory hallucinations.

Major Themes in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Unreliable Narration and the Descent into Madness: The story unfolds through the eyes of an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity despite exhibiting clear signs of mental instability. His justifications for the murder and his obsession with the old man’s eye reveal a distorted perception of reality. We see this in his opening claim, “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Paragraph 1). Here, he acknowledges his nervousness but denies madness, setting the stage for his unreliable narration. As the story progresses, his actions become increasingly erratic, culminating in his delusional belief that he hears the dead man’s heart beating. This auditory hallucination, a physical manifestation of his guilt, exposes the narrator’s complete descent into madness. (“Villains! I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!” Paragraph 19).
• The Power of Guilt and the Inevitability of Confession: The narrator meticulously plans and commits the murder, believing he can escape punishment. However, guilt gnaws at him, intensifying his anxieties and distorting his senses. His seemingly flawless plan crumbles under the weight of his conscience. The repetition of the phrase “beating of the old man’s heart” (various paragraphs) emphasizes the growing obsession with this imagined sound, a constant reminder of his crime. Despite his attempts to maintain composure during the police visit, his guilt manifests as a heightened sense of hearing, ultimately leading him to confess. (“…every night just at midnight, I looked in upon him while he slept.” Paragraph 3). This unexpected confession highlights the power of guilt and the human psyche’s inability to suppress the truth for long.
• The Duality of Human Nature: The narrator wrestles with a conflict between good and evil. He claims to love the old man yet meticulously plans his murder. This internal struggle reflects the potential for darkness that exists within everyone. We see this duality in his statement, “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! yes, it was this!” (Paragraph 2). Here, he attempts to justify his actions by blaming the old man’s eye, but the reader is left to question the true motives behind the murder. The story explores the idea that even the most seemingly ordinary person can harbor violent impulses.
• The Thin Line Between Sanity and Madness: The narrator’s deteriorating mental state blurs the line between sanity and madness. His meticulous planning suggests a calculated mind, yet his obsession and hallucinations point towards a fractured psyche. The story raises questions about the nature of madness and how easily it can take hold. We see this blurring in his self-reflection, “Ha!—would a madman have been so wise as this?” (Paragraph 3). He questions his own sanity while trying to convince the reader otherwise, leaving the reader to wonder if he was ever truly sane to begin with. “The Tell-Tale Heart” explores the terrifying possibility that madness can creep in subtly, distorting reality and leading to horrific acts.

Writing Style in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Vivid and Haunting Imagery (Paragraph 3) * “I turned the latch of his door and opened it—oh, so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out…”
• Repetition (various paragraphs) * “beating of the old man’s heart” – This phrase is repeated throughout the story, emphasizing the narrator’s obsession and growing anxiety.
• First-Person Point of View (Paragraph 1) * “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am…” – The story unfolds through the eyes of the unnamed narrator, placing the reader directly in his thoughts and deteriorating mental state.

Literary Theories and Interpretation of “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Questions and thesis statements about “the tell-tale heart” by edgar allan poe.

• Narrator’s Unreliability
• Guilt and the Inevitable Confession
• The Descent into Madness
• Symbolism and Meaning
• Gothic Elements and Atmosphere
• Psychological Exploration of Character
• How does the narrator’s unreliable narration impact the story’s suspense and horror?
• In what ways does the story explore the themes of guilt and the urge to confess?
• How does the narrator’s mental state deteriorate throughout the story?
• What are the symbolic meanings of the vulture eye, the darkness, and the beating heart?
• How do classic gothic elements contribute to the overall atmosphere of dread and unease?
• To what extent does the story offer a realistic portrayal of a troubled mind?

Thesis Statements

• Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” utilizes an unreliable narrator to create a chilling atmosphere of suspense and expose the inevitable breakdown of a guilt-ridden conscience.
• The relentless sound of the beating heart in “The Tell-Tale Heart” serves not only as a symbol of the murdered man but also as a physical manifestation of the narrator’s overwhelming guilt, ultimately leading to his confession.
• Through the portrayal of a character’s descent into madness in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe explores the terrifying possibility of how seemingly ordinary individuals can harbor violent impulses and ultimately succumb to their own distorted perceptions.
• By employing symbolic elements like the vulture eye and the beating heart, Poe imbues “The Tell-Tale Heart” with deeper meaning, suggesting a battle between good and evil and the enduring power of guilt.

Short Questions and Answer about “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Literary works similar to “the tell-tale heart” by edgar allan poe.

• Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw” utilizes an unreliable first-person narrator, much like Poe’s, creating a story shrouded in ambiguity regarding the protagonist’s sanity and the existence of the supernatural.
• Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla,” a foundational vampire tale, shares “The Tell-Tale Heart’s” chilling atmosphere and dependence on an unreliable narrator, keeping the reader guessing about the protagonist’s perceptions and the truth of the vampiric threat.
• Shirley Jackson’s “ The Lottery ,” a masterpiece of suspense with a shocking twist ending, explores the darkness within human nature, similar to Poe’s works.
• Jackson’s “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” delves into psychological themes and the blurring of reality, reminiscent of the mental deterioration depicted in “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “ The Yellow Wallpaper ,” a powerful indictment of societal norms and the treatment of mental illness, echoes Poe’s exploration of psychological deterioration under societal pressures.

Suggested Readings: “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Eichinger, Sanford. “The Madness of Crowds: ‘Ligeia’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.'” Poe Studies 11.1 (1978): 1-8. Analyzes the theme of madness in both “Ligeia” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
• Kennedy, J. Gerald. “Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.'” Studies in Short Fiction 5.2 (1968): 147-154. Offers a critical analysis of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” focusing on narrative structure and symbolism.
• Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book I: Freud’s Papers on Technique 1953-1954 . Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, translated by Jacques-Alain Miller with Russell Grigg. W.W. Norton & Company, 1988. This influential work by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan can be applied to analyze the psychological aspects of “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Online Resource:

• Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/tell-tale-heart-edgar-allen-poe-american-stories/2634706.html (Accessed March 23, 2024). The full text of the story, a valuable resource for any analysis.

Related posts:

• “The Use of Force” by William Carlos Williams
• “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce: Analysis
• “Civil Peace” by Chinua Achebe: Analysis
• “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor: Analysis

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Undergraduate
• High School
• Architecture
• American History
• Asian History
• Antique Literature
• American Literature
• Asian Literature
• Classic English Literature
• World Literature
• Creative Writing
• Linguistics
• Criminal Justice
• Legal Issues
• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Political Science
• World Affairs
• African-American Studies
• East European Studies
• Latin-American Studies
• Native-American Studies
• West European Studies
• Family and Consumer Science
• Social Issues
• Women and Gender Studies
• Social Work
• Natural Sciences
• Pharmacology
• Earth science
• Agriculture
• Agricultural Studies
• Computer Science
• IT Management
• Mathematics
• Investments
• Engineering and Technology
• Engineering
• Aeronautics
• Medicine and Health
• Alternative Medicine
• Communications and Media
• Advertising
• Communication Strategies
• Public Relations
• Educational Theories
• Teacher's Career
• Chicago/Turabian
• Company Analysis
• Education Theories
• Shakespeare
• Canadian Studies
• Food Safety
• Relation of Global Warming and Extreme Weather Condition
• Movie Review
• Admission Essay
• Annotated Bibliography
• Application Essay
• Article Critique
• Article Review
• Article Writing
• Book Review
• Business Plan
• Business Proposal
• Capstone Project
• Cover Letter
• Creative Essay
• Dissertation
• Dissertation - Abstract
• Dissertation - Conclusion
• Dissertation - Discussion
• Dissertation - Hypothesis
• Dissertation - Introduction
• Dissertation - Literature
• Dissertation - Methodology
• Dissertation - Results
• GCSE Coursework
• Grant Proposal
• Marketing Plan
• Multiple Choice Quiz
• Personal Statement
• Power Point Presentation
• Power Point Presentation With Speaker Notes
• Questionnaire
• Reaction Paper

Research Paper

• Research Proposal
• SWOT analysis
• Thesis Paper
• Online Quiz
• Literature Review
• Movie Analysis
• Statistics problem
• Math Problem
• All papers examples
• How It Works
• Money Back Policy
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• We Are Hiring

Tell-Tale Heart, Essay Example

Pages: 1

Words: 370

Hire a Writer for Custom Essay

Use 10% Off Discount: "custom10" in 1 Click 👇

You are free to use it as an inspiration or a source for your own work.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe continues to remain one of the most fascinating and famous literary works in American history.  The chilling story truly represents the tales of a madman as he has clearly lost some semblance of sanity and is justified in killing an old man because of his ‘vulture’ eye.  The narrator may in fact be very unreliable in his retelling of the events that take place throughout the story.  His insanity may have altered how he truly viewed the world around him, especially with regards to the old man and his frightful eye.  It is clear that he does have enough sense about him to recall very finite details, which is something that an unreliable narrator would not be able to do.  Therefore, despite his insanity, the narrator helps the reader understand the true story of the events that took place surrounding the old man’s murder.

The beating heart in the story represents the narrator’s conscience and guilt that he feels for his actions against the old man.  The heart begins as a dull sound that just barely registers to the narrator, but then eventually escalates so loud and so painful that the narrator cannot take it anymore and confesses his actions.  It is not the actual sound of the heart that makes him confess, but the pounding of the narrator’s conscience and the weight of his actions upon his shoulders that forces him to do so.  For this reason, the climax of the story actually comes in the end.  This is the summation of all of the reader’s feelings for the narrator and the murder of the old man.  The pace of the story picks up during this scene and greatly heightens the emotions that the reader feels as the narrator fights with the sound of the beating heart.  Everything that happened throughout the story comes to a climactic finish as the narrator screams his confession to the police.  This was a perfect ending, and perfect climax for such a story and for this reason, among many others, the story still remains a major part of modern American literature.

Poe, Edgar A. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Literature.org – The Online Literature Library . Web. 21 Mar. 2010. <http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/tell-tale-heart.html>.

Stuck with your Essay?

Get in touch with one of our experts for instant help!

Emotional Stability, Essay Example

Murder vs Homicide, Research Paper Example

Time is precious

don’t waste it!

Plagiarism-free guarantee

Privacy guarantee

Secure checkout

Money back guarantee

Related Essay Samples & Examples

Voting as a civic responsibility, essay example.

Words: 287

Utilitarianism and Its Applications, Essay Example

Words: 356

The Age-Related Changes of the Older Person, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 448

The Problems ESOL Teachers Face, Essay Example

Pages: 8

Words: 2293

Should English Be the Primary Language? Essay Example

Pages: 4

Words: 999

The Term “Social Construction of Reality”, Essay Example

Words: 371

The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) Essay

Introduction, character analysis, plot summary, internal versus external forces, works cited.

The introductory part will present the The Tell- Tale heart (1843), by Alan Edgar Poe, introducing the main characters viz. the narrator and the old man. The story opens with the unknown narrator confessing he is restless but not harebrained or insane, as some would want to think.

He narrates his story by defending his sound mind although he has murdered an innocent old man. The narrator lives with the old man; however, he claims that his supposedly housemate has an evil blue eye that evokes fear in him (the narrator). At this point, the narrator is not trustworthy because he does not even understand himself; he does not know whether he is psychologically sick or he is just another murderer.

This section tackles the main characters of the story and as aforementioned, the narrator and the old man are the only central characters in the story. The narrator is untrustworthy, self-righteous and a rigid person who leaves no space for learning.

He believes he is sane despite the fact that he kills the old man for no apparent reason. His sanctimonious overtones infringe is trustworthiness. On the other hand, the old man is just a victim of malice or covered insanity.

The plot summary will outline the flow of the story where once more the narrator plays the central role. As the story opens, the narrator insinuates he is insane by declaring he has a story to tell; however, the story is a defense to guard his sanity. Therefore, the events of this section will focus on the narrator as he puts forward his claims of sanity.

However, to understand where all the sanity ‘noises’ are coming from, this section will flashback to the one event that seems to infringe the narrator’s insanity; the murder of the old man. Again, the narrator’s trustworthiness is compromised for by defending his actions, he unknowingly exposes his unreliability.

The overriding theme in this story is the theme of paranoia. As the story opens, the narrator acknowledges that he is nervous for reasons he does not know. The thin, almost confusing, or blurred line between paranoia and madness comes out clearly. People think paranoia is synonymous to madness and perhaps this explains why the narrator is vehement in defending his sanity.

Paranoia in this context also underscores the blurred line between hate and love according to Benfey (78). Ironically, many a time individuals hurt the closest people in their lives. In this section, the narrator is trustworthy; he loves and needs the old man, yet he kills him.

Ironically, the presence of police officers who come to investigate the murder of the old man does not evoke any uneasiness in the narrator. However, the deafening sounds of fear and guilt that haunt the narrator seem to take away his peace. The narrator does not confess the murder because the offices push him; no, he confesses because of guilt and self-conviction.

At this point, the story tries to emphasize that internal forces are stronger than external forces. One can defy and deny external forces like rule of law; however, defying self-conviction is tantamount to committing suicide and the narrator comes out as a trustworthy source of this scenario.

The concluding part of the essay will try to piece together the ideas raised in the story. Running from introduction, though plot summary to themes; this section will give a concise recap of the whole story.

Benfey, Christopher. “Poe and the Unreadable: ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.” New Essays on Poe’s Major Tales . United States: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Poe, Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library, 1992. Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 19). The Tell-Tale Heart (1843). https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-tell-tale-heart-1843/

"The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)." IvyPanda , 19 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/the-tell-tale-heart-1843/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)'. 19 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)." December 19, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-tell-tale-heart-1843/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)." December 19, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-tell-tale-heart-1843/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)." December 19, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-tell-tale-heart-1843/.

• Overture To The Flying Dutchman
• Civil Commitment and the Mentally Ill
• The Bunker Hill Monument
• History of the Telephone and Telegraph in the Europe
• "A Call to Rebellion" by Henry Garnet
• The Tell-Tale Heart Psychological Analysis & Critique
• The Tell-Tale Heart Essay
• Edger Allen Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart” Analysis
• "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" vs. "The Tell-Tale Heart"
• The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Poe
• Character Analysis of Connie in “Where are you going, Where have you been?”
• The Single Effect in Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado
• Marxist Criticism on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Essay
• The Things They Carried
• A Pair of Silk Stockings Analysis - Literary Devices

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Tell Tale Heart — Tell Tale Heart Setting Analysis

Tell Tale Heart Setting Analysis

• Categories: Gothic Literature Realism The Tell Tale Heart

About this sample

Words: 736 |

Published: Mar 5, 2024

Words: 736 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature Arts & Culture

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 496 words

1 pages / 646 words

1 pages / 595 words

4.5 pages / 1980 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on The Tell Tale Heart

Edgar Allan Poe, a renowned American author, poet, and literary critic, is known for his dark and macabre themes in his writings. "The Tell-Tale Heart," one of Poe's most famous short stories, is no exception. The story revolves [...]

"The Cask of Amontillado" is a chilling tale of revenge and deception. The story is presented through the eyes of the narrator, Montresor, who seeks revenge on his acquaintance, Fortunato. However, upon closer examination, it [...]

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a masterpiece of Gothic literature, captivating readers with its haunting atmosphere, psychological complexity, and intricate narrative structure. While the story is primarily known for [...]

Edgar Allan Poe is widely regarded as a master of macabre and horror literature. His works are known for their dark and mysterious themes, as well as their use of irony to create a sense of unease and ambiguity. In this essay, [...]

Overwhelming obsession and guilt often lead to deadly consequences. In "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat," Edgar Allan Poe presents us with two men who each commit brutal murders motivated by overwhelming obsession. The [...]

In Edgar Allan Poe's iconic short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the use of language plays a crucial role in creating a sense of suspense and unease for the reader. Through the narrator's vivid descriptions and internal monologue, [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free