The crime lacks any specific motive as the narrator claims he never had any feelings of hatred or resentment for the man who had "never wronged" the narrator. The narrator also denies having been killed for greed and states, "Object there was none. Passion there was none." The narrator is living with the old man for a long and he loves the old man, except for his one filmy pale blue "vulture-eye" that the narrator hates. The story is about the mystery that people sometimes harm those whom they love or need in their lives. The narrator was annoyed by the pale blue vulture-like eye and he strongly wished to separate the old man from that evil eye so that he may not be forced to kill him. But he failed to realize that the blue-eye that he hates so much is the ‘I’ of that old man. In his obsessive hatred of that evil blue-eye, the narrator separates the identity of the old man from his eye and thus, kills him. The story uses a first-person unreliable narrative style and it appears that the story begins in media res; that is, the narrator is already in a conversation with someone, maybe a police officer or the judge or jury, or a psychologist.
Characters of The Tell-Tale Heart:
The narrator is the unnamed protagonist of the story. It is not clear if the narrator is a male or female as Poe didn’t use any gender-specific pronouns for the narrator. The narrator claims that he is suffering from a strange disease that makes him hypersensitive at times and he could listen to sounds that are not easily audible to any normal person. The narrator is living with an old man and the relationship between the narrator and the old man is not clear. The narrator could be his son, or his younger wife, or daughter, or his sister, or a brother. The narrator could be his servant living and serving him during his old age. The old man is very aged and weak and it appears as if he is very dependent on the narrator. The old man is a good man who never did any wrong to the narrator who could be his servant. The narrator himself claims that he never hated the old man ever. The neighbor of the old man listens to the frightening shrieks of the old man and informs the police of something strange. The policemen arrive at the scene and thoroughly check the house of the old man. The narrator clearly convinces the police of normalcy. The policemen are not very suspicious and are friendly. They do not overuse the authority they hold. Yet, the narrator confesses to his crime which appeared to be perfect for him due to his own guilt.
Summary of The Tell-Tale Heart:
The story begins as the narrator confesses that it is true that he is very ill. He claims that he is suffering from a strange disease that makes him hypersensitive. He stresses that he is not mad but totally sane person. But he can listen to things that others may fail to notice. He says that he had no clear motive to commit the crime he just did. He killed an old man with whom he was living for a long. The old man never did any wrong to him and the narrator never hated him. Nor is the narrator greedy, he never wanted the old man’s money. However, the narrator informs that he was very annoyed by a strange feature of the old man, his filmy pale blue ‘vulture-eye.” The narrator says that though he liked the old man, he always hated his pale blue “evil eye” which convinced him to kill the old man so that he may not look at it anymore. The narrator was in fear of the old man’s scrutinizing eye.
Since there is no clear motive behind the crime, it appears that the narrator is being accused of being mad and the narrator defends himself by saying that he is not at all mad but completely sane. He then tells how intelligently he committed the crime which was a perfect crime as there was no evidence of it. He uses the perfect planning of his crime to prove that he is not mad but has a very rational, scheming mind. He says that he continued to plan his action for long. For seven nights, he used to creep into the old man’s bedroom door, then he would open the latch, put an unlit lantern into the room, and carefully put his head in after. Then he would open the shutter of the lantern so that a single ray would fall on the eye. Each of the seven times, the narrator noticed that the pale blue evil eye of the old man was close. Since he loved the old man sans his blue evil eye, he couldn’t gather the strength to kill him. The next morning, he would wake up the old man and ask him how was his sleep.
However, the eighth day was special. The narrator was enjoying his sneakiness and he was confident of his success. At night, he decided to sneak again into the old man’s room. It was pitch-black dark and the narrator could listen to the stirring sound of the old man, making him realize that he is not sleeping. But the narrator wasn’t afraid, he was convinced that the old man cannot see him in such dark. He gradually entered the room with the lantern in his hand. However, he slipped at the door and the lantern chimed. The old man noticed the sound and he was afraid. In his fear, the old man shrieked out loud.
The narrator listened to his shriek but he wasn’t afraid. He knew the old man couldn’t see him. He waited for a long to control the situation and remained very still. So still and motionless he was, that he started clearly listening to the ticking of the clock. He could sense the fear of the old man who was awake and was wondering if someone has entered his house. The narrator could smell his fear and could relate to it. In his fear, the old man groaned and the narrator recognized his fear. He felt sympathetic to the old man, but he was enjoying his fear. The narrator realized that the old man was too much frightened and perhaps he was trying to convince himself that the noise was accidental and there was no one else except him in the room. However, the narrator knew that the old man can’t be convinced because he could smell death in the room.
The narrator then opened the shutter of the lamp a bit while allowing a ray of light to strike at the face of the old man and he noticed the same filmy pale blue vulture eye that he hated. He started feeling that hatred rushing in his veins but then he noticed that his strange illness made him able to hear the strange dull ticking that is growing bit by bit. He tried to recognize it and realized that it was the fearful heart of the old man which was ticking so fast. The heartbeat of the old man continued to grow and the narrator could hear them clear and loud. The narrator got worried that his heartbeats could be audible to the neighbor too and thus, he decided to put an end to it. He put off the lantern, attacked the old man, threw him down on the floor, and then killed him by dropping the old man’s own heavy bed on him.
The narrator noticed that the ticking heartbeat stopped and the pale blue evil eye could not look at him anymore. This calmed him down and he started thinking about his next move. The narrator then says that if there is any more doubt about his sanity, then it will be cleared when he will tell how cleverly he disposed of any evidence of the crime he just committed. He dismembered the body of the old man and took up the planks. Then he hid everything below the room so that there is no trace whatsoever of the old man. He cleaned the floor so well that there was not a single drop of blood or any trace of the crime he just committed.
It was already four o’clock in the morning and the narrator heard the chime of the clock but he also noticed a knock on the door. The narrator opens the door and sees that the police have arrived. The neighbor noticed the shrieking voice of the old man and informed the police. The policemen ask the narrator to let them check the premises to which the narrator willfully agrees. He is confident that he cannot be caught. He says that he had a bad dream and he made that shrieking voice to which he apologizes. He confidently takes the police throughout the house and even takes them to the room of the old man. He places some chairs for the police to sit n the floor just above the place where he hid the body of the old man underground. The policemen are convinced that nothing is wrong and they start chatting with the narrator in a friendly manner. However, the narrator gets startled when his hypersensitive ears listen to the same ticking sound of the heartbeat of the old man. He tries to ignore it but the sound continues to get louder. The narrator gets convinced that the policemen too can hear the same sound and all their friendly talks are just a charade as they know what he did. He gets frightened and confesses that he killed the old man and hid his body just below the floor where the policemen are sitting. He requests the policemen to dig up the floor and take out the ticking heart of the old man. Like a madman, he shouts, “Yes, I killed him. But why does his heart not stop beating? Why does it not stop?”
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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