The Tell-Tale Heart 

 Edgar Allan Poe

Summary of the story:

'The Tell-Tale Heart' is a psychological and mysterious story. In this story, Poe makes his narrator (storyteller) unfold in minute details the many folds of a mystery and lead his readers to the shock at the end. The striking feature of the title is that the heart has betrayed the secret or it is the heart that unfolds the mystery.

Paragraph 1:  

The story teller says that people think that he's crazy, or mad. But he says that he is not crazy because crazy people can't tell their stories precisely. He can hear everything better than other people do.

Para 2: 

The story teller lives in a house with an old man. The old man is nice to him and he likes the old man. But the old man has a pale, blue eye like the eye of a vulture. He hates the eye. So he decides to kill the old man to get rid of the eye.

Para 3: 

Before he killed the old man, the story teller was very nice to him. Every night at midnight, he went very quietly to the old man's room, he opened the old man's room slowly and quietly and put his head inside the room. And then he would very quietly turn on the lamp. The storyteller did the same thing for seven nights, but the old man's eyes were always closed. He couldn't kill the old man, because he didn't see the eye. In the morning the storyteller acted normally so that the old man would not know that he wanted to kill him.

Para 4, 5: 

On the eighth night at midnight the storyteller did the same thing. But this time when he turned on the lamp, he made a sound and the old man woke up. The old man sat up on his bed and asked who was there.

Para 6, 7: 

The storyteller stood quietly for an hour. The old man didn't go back to sleep. The old man was afraid. He knew someone was in his room.

Para 8, 9: 

The storyteller turned on the lamp and saw the old man's eye. He wanted to get rid of the eye. He became angry when he looked at it.

Para 10, 11: 

The storyteller could hear everything. So could hear the beating of the old man's heart. The heart-sound made him even more furious. The sound became louder and quicker. The storyteller became worried that the neighbours would hear the noise made by the old man's heart. He made the lamp light bright and then he yelled. The old man also yelled. The boy threw the old man on the floor and put the heavy bed on the top of him. The sound of the heart stopped. So he knew the old man was dead.

Para 12, 13: 

Then the storyteller cut the body of the old man into pieces and hid them under the wooden floor. He left no sign of murder in the room.

Para 14: 

At 4 am, the next morning, three policemen arrived. A neighbor had informed the police that he had heard the yell come from the house. The police wanted to look inside of the house to see if something bad had happened.

Para 15: 

The boy told the police the old man was staying in the country and was not at home. He said that he had yelled because of a bad dream. The police searched the house but didn't find anything. Then they all sat in the old man's room and talked. The storyteller sat on the floor above where he had hidden the old man's body.

Para 16, 17: 

The police didn't think anything bad had happened. They just sat and talked. The storyteller began to hear the beatings of dead old man's heart. The sound increased. It was a low, dull, quick sound-- much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. The sound bothered him very much.

Para 18: 

When the storyteller couldn't tolerate the sound of the heart, he told the police what he had done and where the body was. He committed the crime and confessed it.

Questions and answers:

1. Justify the title 'The Tell-Tale Heart'.

►The 'Tell-Tale Heart' is a striking story with a deeper psychological insight. The title of the story is quite suggestive because it is the heart of the narrator that exposes the secret and thus betrays him. The literal meaning of 'The Tell-Tale Heart' is the heart that tells the secrecy. The story is about a crime committed by the narrator and his confession made before the police officers. The narrator frequently hears the beatings of the old man's heart as if it is a sound of a watch that makes when enveloped in cotton. The sound bothers him very much. The police perhaps know that the crime was committed. The storyteller simply tries to hide the crime. But the overbearing sense of crime forces him to reveal the truth. The whole story presents the crime committed and the confession of this crime. Therefore the title of the story is suitable.

2. Why does the narrator develop intense hatred against the old man? Would you call the narrator mad? Give reasons. (2066, 2068)

► The narrator lives in the old man's house and kills him for his pale, blue eye with a film over it like that of a vulture. The eye has made him furious. He does not kill him because of any jealousy, gold or other treasures the old man owns. The boy wants to get rid of only the eye that is like that of a vulture. He repeatedly says that the old man's vulture-eye is the main cause of his murder.

               He doesn't seem to be totally mad. He may have been psychologically affected. He speaks like a normal person. He kills the old man for no good and legitimate reason. The old man was innocent. The narrator's oversensitive mind, nervousness, the negative remarks and the crazy actions of cutting the dead body into several pieces and the frequent dictate of his own conscience show his madness.

3. What made the narrator confess his crime? (2062, 2065, 2069)

 ► The police in the very beginning didn't suspect the narrator. They just sat and talked. But the boy heard the echo of the old man's groan which grew louder and louder. It began to bother him. He could not tolerate the imagined sound of the heart-beats of the old man and when it became unbearable for him, he told the police what he had done and where the dead body was. His guilty conscience compelled him to confess his crime before the police. Actually he was so nervous that he began to imagine the beating of the old man's heart and the repentance of the hideous crime he committed compelled him to confess before the police.

4. Describe the scene when the narrator killed the old man. (2064)

► The storyteller, as usual, on the eighth night at midnight went to the old man's room. When he turned on the lamp which he had in his hand, he made a sound and the old man woke up. The old man sat up in his bed and asked who was there. The story teller stood there quietly for an hour. The old man didn't go back to sleep and therefore the narrator saw the old man's eye that made him more and more furious. He wanted to get rid of the old man's eye. The narrator neared the old man's bed. He made the lamp light brighter and then he screamed. The old man also screamed. Then the narrator threw the old man on the floor and put the heavy bed on the top of him. The sound of the old man's heart stopped. So he knew that the old man was dead. The story teller then cut the dead body into several pieces and hid them under the wooden floor. In this way the narrator killed the old man.

5.    How was the narrator betrayed by his own heart? (2069)

►   The narrator dismembered (cut into pieces) the dead body of the old man and deposited the cut limbs under the flooring of the chamber. The police, who arrived for investigation, didn't suspect the narrator. They just sat and talked. In the beginning, the confident and fearless behaviour and the search satisfied the police officers. Being over confident, the narrator got the officers to sit in the same room where the murder was committed. But suddenly his heart started beating fast. He felt headache and imagined a ringing in his ears. The sound grew louder and louder. It began to bother him intolerably. He also feared that the sound was overheard by the police officers. He could not stand the sound of the heart and told the police what he had done and where the dismembered body parts were. Thus his guilty conscience compelled him to confess his crime. Thus he was betrayed by his own heart because he was arrested when he accepted his crime. 

                                                The End