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“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
- Edgar Allen Poe
Depicting the after effects of a gruesome deed, Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is considered to be one of the classic stories of all times. It talks of committing a crime and what circumstances such actions land one into.
Poe’s short stories always have a horror or gothic theme and likewise ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ also creates an environment which is scary, dark and without a doubt mysterious.
Introduction
Title of the Story - The Tell-Tale Heart
Writer’s name - Edgar Allen Poe
Genre - Horror Fiction
Language - English
Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!
The narrator is employed by a man whose vulture eyes make him the object of the narrator’s detestation. Driven mad and frustrated by the look in his master’s eyes, the narrator commits a gruesome crime.
Having done with his master, the narrator tries to hide his crime by weaving a web of lies and deceiving the police officers but the conscience of a man is a funny thing and often gives away, no matter how hard you try.
About the Author
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Born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Edgar Allen Poe was an American writer, poet and literary critic. Best known for his mystery and horror stories, Poe was also an eminent figure of the Romanticism movement in the United States. He is also considered to be the founding figure of the detective fiction and science fiction genre.
Some of his famous works include ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Black Cat’, ‘Annabel Lee’, ‘The Raven’, etc. Edgar Allen Poe died on 7th October, 1849.
About the Story
The story begins with the narrator repetitively saying that he is not mad and if he was mad he wouldn’t remember the entire story. He then goes on to introduce his master and how he did not hate him, He loved his master and the latter was a good man. It was only his eyes that the narrator could not stand.
He describes his master’s eyes to be like a vulture, stark and scavenger-like. As if, he was only waiting for an opportunity to attack them and it was this look of his master’s eyes that compelled the narrator to murder him.
The narrator visits the master’s room every night at midnight for seven consecutive days and just watches him sleep. Since it is the master’s eyes that the narrator loathes, he doesn’t want to kill him while he is asleep.
On the eighth night, the narrator finally finds his master awake and kills him by suffocating him. All the time, while he is killing the master, the narrator can hear the master’s heart beat and this sound stays with him.
It is dawn when the narrator, having disposed of his master’s body by cutting it into pieces and keeping the pieces beneath the wooden floorboards, goes on to receive the policemen at the door.
On inquiry, the narrator tells the officers that it was his screaming that the neighbors must have heard since his master is not at home. But while he is talking to the policemen in the master’s room, he cannot help but hear the sound of the master’s heart beating, which is just his imagination.
Frustrated by the sound he goes on to confess the crime himself. The story has been made into films multiple times but the 2014 version is really good.
Themes Involved
The first and perhaps the most prominent theme of the story is that of guilt and how a man's conscience does not allow him to carry on with his life after he has committed such a heinous crime. The heartbeat that the narrator hears is not real but a creation of his own imagination and his guilt of killing his master.
Another theme in the story is that of the fear of mortality. The narrator murders his “vulture eyed” master and later becomes so scared and guilty of his gruesome deed that he himself confesses to the crime.
Famous Quotes
‘You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded…”
“True! - nervous- very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”
“They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream by night.”
The Bottom Line
The Tell-Tale Heart is one of the most interesting reads that you will ever come across. It has goth, mystery, murder and self-confession pf the crime. If you are diving into the literary world of Edgar Allen Poe, I implore you to start with this story mainly because Poe tells an entire murder mystery in less than five pages.
My ratings for the story - 5 on 5
You can read it here - The Tell-Tale Heart
Written By - Sakshi Singh
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