The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story by one of the greatest writers of all time – Edgar Allan Poe. The short story was originally published in 1843, January. The short story is about a person, and the same person is also the narrator of the story, who is doing his best to make the readers feel that he is perfectly a sane person and in all his senses. However, that is only his fancy and he suffers from an extreme nervousness. And ironically, the narrator shares a story from his past to prove that he is not, and was never, an insane.

The short story is written (deliberately) in an ambiguous style and the names and details of the persons have been kept in the dark. One cannot relate this fiction to a genre which we commonly read. The person who dies and the person who kills are two distinct ones and perhaps the most distinguished ones compared to the general persons in the short stories…

This unnamed person conceives an idea that he cannot move or shake from his place and has gone rigid. He talks about some old man whom he likes except the eyes which he despises and his hatred grows to such an extent that he kills that old man. The killing – the murder – and then the confession of the narrator is the amazing parts of the story and one must read those to fully enjoy that. I won’t like to give details of those events but yes, I would surely love to talk about the art of Edgar Allan Poe and his short story’s ending.

To that end, the narrator goes to the old man’s room every night at 12 am, for seven days. Each night the narrator opens the man’s door and puts in a lantern. After the lantern, the narrator puts his head through the doorway, slowly, and then lightens the lantern so that a small beam of light shines on the old man’s eye. Each night the old man doesn’t open his eye, so the narrator feels that he can’t kill him.

The introduction of the clicking sound which the narrator thinks to be coming from the old man’s heart (who has already been killed and cut by him) clarify the story to a great extent. The Tell-Tale Heart is the heart of the old man who has been murdered without any proper reasons whatsoever! You must read this story to know better and know more. I enjoyed my share…

Review by – Simardeep Kaur