The Tell-Tale Heart
by
Edgar Alan Poe
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“tell-tale”: 暴露秘密的；掩飾不住的
Genre Introduction:
What Is “Short Story”
 Fiction
 Novel
 Short Story
 Fable
 Parable
 Tales
 plot
 Narrative point of view
 Setting
 Characterization
Point of View
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Definition: The perspective from which a
story is told.
Types:
A. The narrator a participant
(writing in first person “I”)
B. The narrator a nonparticipant
(writing in the third-person)
A. The Participant Narrator
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1. A major character
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2. A minor character
B. The Nonparticipant Narrator
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1. all-knowing (or omniscient): seeing into any
of the characters
2. seeing into one major character
3. seeing into one minor character
4. objective: not seeing into any characters
(Ex. Ernest Hemingway’s works)
The Unreliable Narrator
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Definition:
the story told from the point of view of a
person who, we perceive, is deceptive (欺瞞的),
self-deceptive (自欺的), deluded (迷惑的), or deranged
(錯亂的).
Why the use of an unreliable narrator:
to create a lively conflict between what we are
told and what, apparently, we are meant to
believe (敘事者不等於作者)
Association
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(相關聯結)
The non-participant narrator in “The Midnight
Visitor”: seeing into one minor character
The ironical point of view in “The Midnight
Visitor” There is a gap between the author’s
perception of espionage and that of Fowler, the
young writer.
Some Names that You May Know
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Stephen King
Freddy Krueger
La Llorona
Bela Lugosi
Bram Stoker
The Addams Family
Boris Karloff
Yuki Onna
Mary Shelley
Who These People Are 1
Stephen King: writer of horror novels
---ex. Misery (戰慄遊戲)
 Freddy Kruger: character in Nightmare on Elm
Street (半夜鬼上床)
 La Llorona: Mexican folklore (weeping
woman)
 Bela Lugosi: actor; playing Count Dracula
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Who These People Are 2
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Bram Stoker: author of Dracula (德古拉)
The Addams Family 阿達一族
Mary Shelley: author of Frankenstein
Boris Karloff: actor; playing Frankenstein (科
學怪人)
Yuki Onna: 雪女Japanese folklore
Thriller 1
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Why are horror movies (thrillers) so popular?

Do you believe in or will you influenced by
the scenes described in the thrillers?
Thriller 2
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Function 1: to distract your mind from your
real life pressure?
Function 2: to enjoy the excitement invoked by
the imagination of the weird or gruesome?
Function 3: to release some of our deep fears
in an environment in which there is no worry
of our safety?
Thriller 3

The unconscious in human psychology (Freud)
vs. the Enlightenment exaltation of reason
Freud (佛洛伊德) 1
Three major elements in the constitution of
human subject:
-----superego (civilization; morality; education)
-----ego (man’s basic biological need and pursuit)
-----id (the dark, beastly impulses in human
psychology)
 Ex. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (《化身博士》;
1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson

Freud (佛洛伊德) 2
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reality principle vs. pleasure principle
The extreme performance of pleasure principle
will be destruction
Paranoia (偏執狂，妄想症)

Paranoia is a thought process believed to be
heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to
the point of irrationality and delusion (妄想；錯覺).
Paranoid thinking typically includes
persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived
threat towards oneself. Historically, this
characterization was used to describe any
delusional state. (from Wikipedia)
alter ego 他我 (另一個自我)


An alter ego (Latin, "the other I") is a second
self, which is believed to be distinct from a
person's normal or original personality.
It is a concept indicating that good and evil
exist within one person, constantly at war.
alter ego 他我 (另一個自我)

The title characters in Robert Louis
Stevenson's thriller Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde (1886) represents a typical case
of alter ego.
The Wretched Life of
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
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Orphaned child of traveling actors
The heavy gambling debt and the conflict with
the well-off foster parents
The subsequent disownment
A successful editor
The marriage with his 13-year-old cousin
The mysterious death
Father of modern detective story
Poe’s exploration of human
psychology
Further Associations:
Multi-Person Point of View

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Have you ever heard of the film《羅生門》
(directed by黑澤明)?
Do you have any idea of’ “《雪山飛狐》 by
金庸?
The text
Poe’s vivid imagination of a psycho’s mind:
-----The simultaneous awareness and denial of
his illness the weird fantasies
-----The obsessive fear of the old man’s
gaze
-----The extreme composure (沉著) and
discretion (謹慎) in planning and execution
-----The panic or loss of control when things go wrong

The narrator’s simultaneous
awareness and denial of his illness

“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.” (1)
The narrator’s simultaneous
awareness and denial of his illness

“You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing.
But you should have seen me. You should have
seen how wisely I proceeded --with what
caution --with what foresight --with what
dissimulation I went to work! . . . . Ha! would
a madman have been so wise as this . . . .” (2)
The narrator’s simultaneous
awareness and denial of his illness
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“Never before that night had I felt the extent of
my own powers --of my sagacity.” (4)
“And now have I not told you that what you
mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of
the sense?” (10)
“If still you think me mad, you will think so no
longer when I describe the wise precautions I
took for the concealment of the body.” (12)
Compulsion

It seems the narrator compulsively (不由自主地)
stresses the discretion and precaution of his
action over and over again to prove his sanity.
The narrator’s obsessive fear of the
old man’s gaze
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“I think it was his eye (眼神) ! 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.” (2)
無所遁形?
The narrator’s obsessive fear of the
old man’s gaze

“And this I did for seven long nights --every
night just at midnight --but I found the eye
always closed; and so it was impossible to do
the work; for it was not the old man who vexed
me, but his Evil Eye.” (3)
The narrator’s obsessive fear of the
old man’s gaze

The narrator’s fear of the old man’s eye is
actually the fear of the inner dark side of
himself and his desire to kill the eye is his hard
try to kill the dark force in him.
The fear of the old man’s eye or the
fear of himself?

“I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at
midnight, when all the world slept, it has
welled up from my own bosom, deepening,
with its dreadful echo, the terrors that
distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew
what the old man felt, and pitied him, although
I chuckled at heart.” (8)
The old man as the narrator’s alter
ego

The extreme composure (沉著) and
discretion (謹慎) in planning and
execution
“You should have seen how wisely I proceeded
--with what caution --with what foresight -with what dissimulation (掩飾) I went to work! . . .
Oh, you would have laughed to see how
cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly -very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb
the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place
my whole head within the opening so far that I
could see him as he lay upon his bed.” (3)
The panic or loss of control when
things go wrong
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“It was the beating of the old man's heart. It
increased my fury, as the beating of a drum
stimulates the soldier into courage.” (10)
The panic or loss of control when
things go wrong

“It was a low, dull, quick sound --much such a
sound as a watch makes when enveloped in
cotton. I gasped for breath --and yet the
officers heard it not. …"Villains!" I shrieked,
"dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear
up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of
his hideous heart!" (17-18)
The narrator’s confession

The narrator finally breaks down when he fails
in his try to conquer the fear in him.
Questions
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What do you think is the sound the narrator
hears when he is going to kill the old man?
What do you think is the sound the narrator
takes as the old man’s heart beat even though
he knows clearly that the latter is already dead?
Why Poe chooses to employ the first-person
point of view to narrate this story?
An Extra Note
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Our journalists’ poor performance by asking
the perpetrator (犯案者) : “Do you regret of doing
so?”
The detective’s imitation (imagination) of the
perpetrator’s psychological condition in his/her
effort to solve the crime.
Further Associations:
Other Short Stories by Poe

“The Cask of Amontillado”《阿蒙地拉多桶
酒》
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“The Purloined Letter” 《失竊的信》
Further Associations:

British film director Alfred Hitchcock (希區考
克; 1899 –1980 ) and his film Psycho (驚魂記)

based on the 1959 novel of the same name by
Robert Bloch loosely inspired by the crimes of
Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein.
Psycho
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(驚魂記)
The film centers on the encounter between a
secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up
at a secluded motel after embezzling money
from her employer, and the motel‘s disturbed (有
精神障礙的) owner-manager, Norman Bates
(Perkins), and its aftermath.
Association:
The Silence of the Lambs
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a 1991 American thriller film (沉默的羔羊)
that blends elements of the crime and horror
genres
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The film is based on Thomas Harris 1988
novel of the same name, his second to feature
Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and
cannibalistic serial killer.
Association:
The Silence of the Lambs
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Directed by Jonathan Demme and starring
Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Scott
Glenn.
In the film, Clarice Starling, a young U.S. FBI
trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr.
Lecter to apprehend another serial killer,
known only as "Buffalo Bill".
Thank You