Edgar Allan Poe's
“The Tell Tale
Heart”
Poe's Biography
Story Analysis
Study Guide Questions
An article that relates to the story with a venn diagram
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), American poet, a master of the horror tale, credited with practically
inventing the detective story.
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents who were itinerant
actors. His father David Poe Jr. died probably in 1810 and his mother Elizabeth Hopkins Poe in 1811.
Edgar was taken into the home of a Richmond merchant John Allan and brought up partly in England
(1815-20), where he attended Manor School at Stoke Newington. Never legally adopted, Poe took Allan's
name for his middle name.
Poe attended the University of Virginia (1826), but was expelled for not paying his gambling debts. This
led to a quarrel with Allan, who later disowned him. In 1827 Poe joined the U.S. Army as a common
soldier under assumed name and age. In 1830 Poe entered West Point and was dishonorably discharged
next year, for intentional neglect of his duties.
Little is known about his life in this time, but in 1833 he lived in Baltimore with his father's sister. After
winning a prize of $50 for the short story "MS Found in a Bottle," he started a career as a staff member of
various magazines, among others the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond (1835-37), Burton's
Gentleman's Magazine in Philadelphia (1839-40), and Graham's Magazine (1842-43). During these years
he wrote some of his best-known stories.
In 1836 Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm. She burst a blood vessel in 1842, and
remained a virtual invalid until her death from tuberculosis five years later. After the death of his wife,
Poe began to lose his struggle with drinking and drugs. He addressed the famous poem "Annabel Lee"
(1849) to her.
Poe's first collection, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, appeared in 1840. It contained one of his
most famous works, "The Fall of the House of Usher." During the early 1840s Poe's best-selling work
was The Conchologist's First Book (1839). The dark poem of lost love, "The Raven," brought Poe
national fame, when it appeared in 1845. The Murders in the Rue Morgue(1841) and The Purloined Letter
are among Poe's most famous detective stories. Poe was also one of the most prolific literary journalists in
American history.
Poe suffered from bouts of depression and madness, and he attempted suicide in 1848. In September the
following year he disappeared for three days after a drink at a birthday party and on his way to visit his
new fiancée in Richmond. He turned up in a delirious condition in Baltimore gutter and died on October
7, 1849.
Type of Work
......."The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story in the horror genre. It focuses on a mentally unstable man who
murders an old man with an "evil eye."
Year of Publication
......."The Tell-Tale Heart" was first published in the winter of 1843 in The Pioneer, a Boston magazine.
Setting
.......The story opens in an undisclosed locale, possibly a prison, when the narrator tells readers that he is
not mad. To defend his sanity, he tells a story which he believes will prove him sound of mind. His story is
set in a house occupied by the narrator and an old man. The time of the events in the story is probably
the early 1840's, when Poe wrote the story. The action in the narrator's story takes place over eight days.
Characters
The Narrator: Deranged unnamed person who tries to convince the reader that he is sane. The narrator's
gender is not identified, but Poe probably intended him to be a man. Here is why: Poe generally wrote
from a male perspective, often infusing part of himself into his main characters. Also, in major short
stories in which he identifies the narrator by gender—stories such as "The Black Cat," "The Cask of
Amontillado," and "The Fall of the House of Usher"—the narrator is male. Finally, the narrator of "A TellTale Heart" exhibits male characteristics, including (1) A more pronounced tendency than females to
commit violent acts. Statistics demonstrate overwhelmingly that murder is a male crime. (2) Physical
strength that would be unusual in a female. The narrator drags the old man onto the floor and pulls the
bed on top of him, then tears up floorboards and deposits the body between joists. (3) The narrator
performs a man's chore by bringing four chairs into the old man's bedroom, one for the narrator and three
for the policemen. If the narrator were a woman, the policemen probably would have fetched the chairs.
But they did not.
The Old Man: Seemingly harmless elder who has a hideous "evil eye" that unnerves the narrator.
Neighbor: Person who hears a shriek coming from the house of the narrator and the old man, then
reports it to the police.
Three Policemen: Officers who search the narrator's house after a neighbor reports hearing a shriek.
Point of View
.......The story is told in first-person point of view by an unreliable narrator. The narrator is obviously
deranged, readers learn during his telling of his tale, even though he declares at the outset that he is
sane. As in many of his other short stories, Poe does not name the narrator. A possible explanation for
this is that the unnamed narrator becomes every human being, thereby enhancing the universality of the
short story. In other words, the narrator represents anyone who has ever acted perversely or
impulsively—and then had to pay for his deed.
Plot Summary .
........The narrator has been so nervous that he jumps at the slightest sound. He can hear all things on
heaven and earth, he says, and some things in hell. But he maintains that he is not mad. To prove his
sanity, he says, he will calmly tell the reader his story.
.......One day, he decided to take the life of an old man for no other reason except that he had an eye
resembling that of a vulture—“a pale blue eye with a film over it.” Over time, it became so unbearable to
look upon it that the narrator had no other choice but to get rid of the old man. The way he went about the
task, with such calculation and cunning, demonstrates that he is not mad, the narrator says.
.
......At midnight, he would turn the knob on the door of the old man’s bedroom. Then he would open the
door ever so slowly. In fact, it would take him an hour to open the door wide enough to poke his head into
the room. Would a madman have been so cautious? Then he would open a little slot on his lantern,
releasing light, to check the hideous eye. For seven straight nights, it was closed, “and so it was
impossible to do the work,” he says, “for it was not the old man who vexed me but his Evil Eye.”
.......On the eighth night, the narrator opened the door with greater caution than before. As before, the
room was completely dark. He was about to shine the lantern when the old man sat up and said, “Who’s
there?” The narrator did not answer but remained in place, not moving a muscle, for an entire hour. All
the while, the old man continued to sit up, wondering—the narrator speculated—what he had heard. The
wind? A mouse? A cricket?
.......Although he did not hear the old man lie down again, the narrator opened the lantern slot just a sliver,
then wider. The beam fell upon the open vulture eye. Then the narrator heard a low, muffled sound—the
beating of the man’s heart! Or so he believed. The heartbeat louder—then louder and louder. Would a
neighbor hear it?
.......Shouting, the narrator rushed into the room. After the old man shrieked, the narrator quickly threw
him to the floor and pulled the bed on top of him. The heart continued to beat, but only softly. Moments
later, the beating stopped. The narrator checked his pulse. Nothing. The old man was dead. After moving
the bed aside, the narrator took up three floorboards, secured the old man between the joists, and
replaced the boards. The narrator felt proud of himself, for there was no blood to wash out, no other task
of any kind to do.
.......At 4 a.m., just when he had finished his work, the narrator answered a knock at his front door. When
he opened it, three policemen entered, saying a neighbor had reported hearing a shriek, possibly
indicating foul play. They needed to search the premises. “I smiled,” the narrator says, “for what had I to
fear?”
.......After welcoming the police, he told them the shriek was his own; he had cried out during a dream. He
also told them that the old man who lived in the house was away in the country. Next, he took the police
all over the house, inviting them to search everything—thoroughly. After they entered the old man’s
chamber, the narrator pointed out that the old man’s possessions had not been disturbed.
.......In his swelling self-confidence, the narrator brought in chairs and invited the policemen to rest. “I
myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which
reposed the corpse of the victim,” the narrator says.
.......The police appeared completely satisfied that nothing criminal had occurred in the house. However,
they continued to chat idly, staying much longer than the narrator had expected. By and by, he began to
hear a rhythmic ringing in his head. While he was talking with the police, the noise—which had the
cadence of a ticking watch but a much louder sound—persisted, becoming more distinct. A moment later,
he concluded that the rhythmic ringing was outside of him. Still, he talked on, now more loudly. The
policemen did not seem to hear the noise.
.......When it grew even louder, the narrator rose and began arguing with the officers about trivial matters,
punctuating his conversation with wild hand movements. He also paced back and forth. Then he raved
and cursed and dragged his chair over the floorboards, all in an apparent attempt to drown out the noise
he was hearing. Meanwhile, it grew still louder, and louder, and louder. How was it possible that they
could not hear it?
.......In fact, they must have heard it, the narrator decided. And they must have suspected him of a crime
all along. Their calm manner and idle chatter were part of a ruse to mock him. Unable to brook their
counterfeit behavior any longer, unable to endure the sound any longer, the narrator brought the whole
business to a crashing climax.
......."Villains! I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is
the beating of his hideous heart!"
Themes
Theme 1: A human being has a perverse, wicked side—another self—that can goad him into doing evil
things that have no apparent motive. This is the same theme of another Poe story, "The Black Cat." The
narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" admits in the second paragraph of the story that he committed a
senseless crime, saying: "Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had
never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire." However, he does note
that his evil deed, murder, was not entirely unprovoked; for the old man he killed had a hideous eye that
unnerved him. Unable to look upon it any longer, he decided to kill the old man.
Theme 2: Fear of discovery can bring about discovery. At the end of the story, the narrator begins to
crack under the pressure of a police investigation, hearing the sound of the murdered man's beating
heart, and tells the police where he hid the body. Fear of discovery is the principle under which lie
detectors work.
Theme 3: The evil within is worse than the evil without. The old man has a hideous, repulsive eye;
outwardly, he is ugly. But, as the narrator admits, he is otherwise a harmless, well-meaning person. The
narrator, on the other hand, is inwardly ugly and repulsive, for he plans and executes murder; his soul is
more repulsive than the old man's eye.
Prose Beats Like a Heart
.......From time to time, Poe uses a succession of short sentences or word groups, creating a rhythm not
unlike that of a heartbeat. Note the following examples from the story:
Object there was none. Passion there was none. 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!
I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could to maintain the ray
upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased.
Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!—no, no? They heard!—they suspected!—they
KNEW!—they were making a mockery of my horror!—this I thought, and this I think. But anything
was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those
hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die!—and now—again—hark! louder!
louder! louder! LOUDER!—"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up
the planks!— here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!"
Figures of Speech
.......As in other works of his, Poe uses many figures of speech. Examples are the following:
Anaphora
.......Anaphora is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of a clause or
another group of words. Anaphora imparts emphasis and balance. Here are boldfaced examples from
"The Tell-Tale Heart":
I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.
With what caution—with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work!
He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself, "It
is nothing but the wind in the
chimney, it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or, "It is merely a
cricket which has made a single chirp."
There was nothing to wash out—no stain of any kind—no blood-spot whatever.
They heard!—they suspected!—they KNEW!—they were making a mockery of my horror!
Personification
Death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the
victim. [Here, Death is a person.]
Simile
So I opened it—you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily—until at length a single dim ray like
the thread of the spider shot out from the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye. [The simile is the
comparison of the ray to the thread of the spider with the use of the word like.
It increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage. [The simile is
the comparison of the heartbeat to a drumbeat.]
His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness. . . . [The simile is the comparison of the
darkness to pitch.]
Alliteration
Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.
Meanwhile, the hellish tattoo of the heart increased.
It is the beating of his hideous heart!
Irony
I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.
Author Information
.......Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston. After being orphaned at age two, he was
taken into the home of a childless couple—John Allan, a successful businessman in Richmond, Va., and
his wife. Allan was believed to be Poe’s godfather. At age six, Poe went to England with the Allans and
was enrolled in schools there. After he returned with the Allans to the U.S. in 1820, he studied at private
schools, then attended the University of Virginia and the U.S. Military Academy, but did not complete
studies at either school.
.......After beginning his literary career as a poet and prose writer, he married his young cousin, Virginia
Clemm. He worked for several magazines and joined the staff of the New York Mirror newspaper in 1844.
All the while, he was battling a drinking problem. After the Mirror published his poem “The Raven” in
January 1845, Poe achieved national and international fame. Besides pioneering the development of the
short story, Poe invented the format for the detective story as we know it today. He also was an
outstanding literary critic. Despite the acclaim he received, he was never really happy because of his
drinking and because of the deaths of several people close to him, including his wife in 1847. He
frequently had trouble paying his debts. It is believed that heavy drinking was a contributing cause of his
death in Baltimore on October 7, 1849.
Study Questions and Essay Topics
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Write an essay that compares and contrasts the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” with the narrator
of "The Black Cat." In the latter story, the narrator is also mentally unstable even though he
maintains at the beginning of the story that he is not.
Is the narrator stricken with guilt?
What is the difference between guilt and remorse?
If you were the narrator's attorney, what would be your approach in defending him?
Write an essay about people who maltreat others because of their physical appearance..
Name____________________
Date_____________
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
Study Guide Questions
1. Briefly describe the narrator. Why do you think he often says that he is not mad?
2. How does the narrator profess to feel about the old man? What is the one thing about him the
narrator hates? Why? What do you think causes his obsession?
3. What does the narrator do for seven nights before he kills the old man? What is different about
the eighth night?
4. Why does the narrator empathize with the old man’s fear?
5. How does he kill the old man? What does he do after he kills him?
6. Why does the narrator reveal the murder to the police officers?
7. What do you think the beating heart symbolizes?
Name____________________
Date_____________
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
Study Guide Questions
1. Briefly describe the narrator. Why do you think he often says that he is not mad?
He’s crazy. He kills the old man even though the old man has never done anything to him.
Answers may vary
2. How does the narrator profess to feel about the old man? What is the one thing about him the
narrator hates? Why? What do you think causes his obsession?
He tells the reader that he loves the old man. The only thing that the narrator hates about the
old man is his “evil” eye. He has issues with the old man because he has one eye that is different
from the other. Answers may vary.
3. What does the narrator do for seven nights before he kills the old man? What is different about
the eighth night?
Every night for seven nights the narrator sneaks into the old man’s bedroom while he sleeps and
just watches him. On the eighth night the old man wakes up after the narrator makes a noise.
4. Why does the narrator empathize with the old man’s fear?
The narrator says that he has often heard a noise while in bed and rationalized what the noise
could be.
5. How does he kill the old man? What does he do after he kills him?
He throws the bed on top of the old man. After the old man was dead he chopped up his body
and put it under the floor boards.
6. Why does the narrator reveal the murder to the police officers?
He hears his own heart beating and in his paranoia he thinks that it’s the old man’s heart.
7. What do you think the beating heart symbolizes?
The beating heart symbolizes the narrator’s guilt.
Missing girl's body found under neighbor's bed
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (CNN) -- A 14-year-old boy faces murder charges after police discovered the body of a
missing 8-year-old neighbor girl encased in his water bed.
Police say the suspect had tried to mask the odor of the decomposing body with air freshener and incense. The
teen-ager apparently slept in the bed each night since the killing one week ago.
Authorities were tipped off by the boy's mother, who became suspicious because of the strong odor and then saw
liquid coming from under the bed.
Sheriff Nat Glover said Joshua Phillips confessed while being questioned and has been charged with murder.
Joshua was taken to a juvenile facility. It's not clear whether authorities will prosecute him as an adult.
The victim had been repeatedly stabbed and hit in the head with a blunt instrument, according to Glover.
Detectives recovered a knife and baseball bat at the scene that they believe were used to kill the girl.
Authorities had searched the house three times before, but because the family cooperated, investigators did not
take furniture apart or use dogs trained to detect missing people.
The family explained away a mild odor then as coming from birds and other pets.
Madlyn Rae Clifton, known as "Maddie," had been missing for a week. Volunteers had handed out leaflets with her
photo, which was broadcast nationally during a televised football game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the
Cincinnati Bengals last weekend.
Billboard appeals had been posted, and volunteers had raised $100,000 for her safe return.
Glover said police had questioned the boy in the days before the girl's body was found, primarily because the teen
was one of the last people to see her before she disappeared November 3.
The two children were frequent companions and playmates, and Phillips was known as "somewhat of a nice kid"
with no record of trouble with police, the sheriff said.
"There was no indication that she had any reason to be afraid of him, to have any apprehension of going with
him," Glover noted. "So it would have been very easy to get her into a position where he could kill her."
At a news conference, Glover used a chart to show how the girl's body had been taped in a fetal position to a sheet
of plywood supporting the water bed.
Glover refused to discuss a motive and said there was no indication the girl had been sexually assaulted.
The girl's beige and brown house sits near the end of a cul-de-sac of well-kept, single-family homes.
Maddie "was a very sweet little girl," neighbor Bertie Hollins said. "Everybody loved her. She used to come by my
house for cookies, and she swam in our pool." As for the boy, Hollins said, he "appeared to be a very nice,
handsome young man."