The Tell-Tale Heart - Story Summary

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“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe and published in 1843. Representative of Poe’s trademark macabre style, the story is narrated in the first-person by an unnamed man who attempts to convince the reader of his sanity after committing a murder. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is considered a classic of Gothic literature and remains one of Poe’s most famous tales of suspense.

The narrator begins by insisting that, while he is terribly nervous from the ordeal he is about to relate, he is not mad. Instead, his senses have been sharpened by the experience, and he explains that he will calmly tell us the “whole story” to prove his point.

The narrator describes an old man whose eye he begins to fear and detest. Although the narrator’s relationship to this old man remains mysterious, he notes that he did not desire the old man’s money, nor had he ever been wronged by the man and in fact felt affection for him. Nevertheless, the narrator decides to kill the old timer so that he will never again have to look upon the pale and filmy eye.

Each night around midnight, the narrator sneaks into the old man’s room and cautiously shines a lantern onto his eye, insisting in the retelling that a madman would never have been as wise and careful as this. However, because the old man’s eye is always closed, the narrator cannot summon the visceral distaste that he needs to kill him.

On the eighth night, the narrator’s thumb slips on the lantern’s fastening, and the noise wakes the old man, who cries out in terror. For an hour, the narrator and the old man remain frozen in place.

Eventually, the narrator decides to slowly shine the lantern on the man’s vulture eye, now wide open. The sight of the eye triggers the hatred he’d been missing the last seven nights. He begins to hear the old man’s heartbeat, which he compares to the sound of a watch enveloped in cotton.

As the heartbeat grows louder, the narrator worries that the beating will wake the neighbors. He attacks, dragging the old man to the floor and stifling him with the mattress until he can no longer hear the beating.

The narrator dismembers the old man’s corpse and conceals it beneath the floorboards, describing the “wise precautions” he takes in doing so. He adds that not a spot of blood stains the floorboards by the time he is done, as he cleverly collected it using a tub.

Three policemen knock at the door around four o’clock in the morning. They have come to check on the house, having been summoned by a neighbor who heard a shriek. The narrator invites the policemen in and confidently assures them that nothing is wrong, even brazenly inviting them to sit down directly above the old man’s corpse.

However, just as the policemen seem utterly assured of his innocence, the narrator begins to hear a familiar sound: that of a watch enveloped in cotton. He realizes it is the old man’s heart and becomes increasingly agitated, eventually growing convinced that the policemen can hear it too. Finally, the narrator cries out, admitting to the murder.
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Legends watching this before 12 mins of test

maliktasaduq
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I have a feeling that the heart beat that he was hearing might be his own cause he low-key way anxious too lol

proshutto
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Watching this 3 hours before the deadline for writing a 3 page essay

fn
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We have 10 gothic elements which are
1.mystery and fear
2. Omens and curses
3. Atmosphere and setting, [ graveyard, gloomy castles
Cemetery, dark forest, dark rooms]
4.supernatural
5. romance
6.Villain -> EVil
7. Emotional distress> Suffering from depression
8. nightmares
9. antihero( No noble qualties )
10.damsel
Which of them applied in the tell tale heart ?

fatmaal
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Read this right after Crime and Punishment and tell you what, it was awesome (and strangely similar to what Raskolnikov had through)

muhammadsyafiqaimansyah
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I'm listening cuz I'm fan of Edgar
I'm from Dhaka Bangladesh it's not in our textbook

camellia..-
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My man is doing gods work I wonder how many people passed an test or project because of him

AidenWeber-wmvp
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Ur video is excellent but if u make the video with English subtitle it will be very helpful to us cause most of us don't understand only by listening English cause English is not our native language, that's why, , 😢

tasrinsultana
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The Old Man's eye is just having an accident, since many ages ago. The Eye and the heart has been drove this guy in madness.

lenathompson
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Really awesome explanation!
Would you please explain 'A Bread and Butter Miss' by Hector Hugh Munro.

nusrathiqbal
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Well seeing this before the day of my exams 😮

lackeva
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bro why's everyone studying this shi

exeynnn
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Please do The Wizard of Oz and A Wrinkle in Time next

tayloredwards
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watching 2 hours before College exam😂

faheem__
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Read this in school today. Still don’t see why we need to have a horror unit in English class but okay.

carcar
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The internet isnt working at my school so the teacher is letting us watch it on ou r phones

doeseditssometimes
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Summarize Holes / The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Huckleberry Finn

Boggywompuhs
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Can we use this as a showcase for our report?

fishlantern
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I read this in highschool and I can’t remember what happened so I’m here

racheltrue
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Real ones remember the arthur episode about this

Kalmarstormfeather