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A Telltale Heart
A Telltale Heart
A T E L L - TA L E H E A R T
As to the interior of the house, we only hear about the old man's bedroom,
which is the place where horror plays in the dark while the old man sleeps,
completely unaware. The room is all the more scary because it isn't described,
because we can't see it.
CHARACTERS
Edgar Allen Poe is trying to convince the readers that the main
character feels guilty for killing the old man.
There are many parts in the story where Poe wants the reader to
understand that even though the main character seems crazy he still feels
remorse.
PLOT
Exposition: Introduced to the main characters. The mad man and the old man. Tells the
setting and basic conflict, which is the man’s complete revulsion of the old man’s eye.
Rising Action: The narrator plots to kill the old man. Oh my.
Climax: The narrator murders the old man.
Falling Action: The police came to investigate.
Resolution: The mad man hears the heartbeat of the old man and gives his secret,
allowing him to be captured. Problem solved.
According to GradeSaver.com, the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" begins the story by
telling his audience that he is not insane, just nervous and tries to reason with his
audience that he is innocent and his actions are justified. He continues with a calm
justification as to why he killed the old man who lived with him.
LITERARY DEVICES USED
• Repetition – “…I undid the lantern cautiously– oh so cautiously,
cautiously (for the hinges creaked).”
• Situational Irony – “Villains!...dissemble no more! I admit the deed!”
• Simile – “…there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a
watch makes when enveloped in cotton…”
• Foreshadowing – “I was never kinder to the old man the during the
whole week before I killed him.”
• Onomatopoeia – The use of words whose sounds imitate the sounds of
what they describe, “creak, gasp, ha ha!”
• Personification – “Evil Eye”
• Irony – (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers)
LITERARY DEVICES USED
• Metaphor – “A watch’s minute hand moves more quickly than did
mine.”
• Imagery – “He had the eye of a vulture– a pale blue eye, with a film
over it…”
• Dramatic irony – “True-nervous-very very dreadfully nervous I have
been and am! But why will you say that I am mad… Hearken! And
observe how healthily-how calmly I can tell you the whole story.”
There are a lot of simile and personification literary devices used in the
story more than any other literary devices used.
SUMMARY
“The Tell Tale Heart” is a short, but highly effective, horror story written by Edgar Allen Poe and
published in 1843. It is told from the first person point of view of a murderer who tries to
convince the listener of his methodical sanity despite the otherworldly events that lead to his
capture.
The narrator lives with an old man who possesses one filmy, pale blue, “vulture-like” eye that the
narrator despises. It is unclear what relationship the two have, or if there are any other
circumstances leading to the events. The narrator assures the listener that he harbored no hate
for the man other than complete revulsion for the eye. He describes how the hatred of the eye
grew so much he decided to murder the old man. He lays out his plan, insisting to the listener
that his careful detail means that he could not possibly be insane.
For seven nights, he shines a thin ray of light through a crack in the door onto the man’s eye, but
each time the eye is closed, and the narrator is unable to complete his plan. On the eighth night,
the narrator’s hand slips and makes a noise, waking the old man. The narrator doesn’t draw back.
After a few minutes, he opens the lantern and the sliver of light finds the eye open. He hears the
man’s heart beating wildly from terror, and he strikes. He smothers the old man with a pillow.
SUMMARY
Afterward, he dismembers the man and lays the pieces under the floorboards. When the police
arrive, they claim that neighbors heard a scream, but the narrator insists that it was only he
crying out from his nightmares. He is so sure they will never find evidence of his wrongdoing that
he pulls up chairs and invites them to sit down directly over the spot where the old man is
buried.
After a while, the narrator grows uncomfortable and feels a ringing in his ears. It grows louder
and louder, and soon he is convinced that it is the heartbeat of the murdered man coming from
under the floorboards. As the sound grows louder, the narrator becomes terrified of the wild
beating of the heart. He is convinced that the officers not only hear the beating, but that they
also know of his guilt. Finally, the narrator breaks down and confesses, telling the officers to tear
up the floorboards so they can find the pieces of the old man.
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