THE TELL-TALE HEART
ENGLISH | THE HERITAGE OF WORDS
Edgar Allan poe
Edgar Alan Poe in his story The Tell-Tale Heart shows the mystery of murder keeping the readers in great suspense up to end of the story. The narrator is very sensitive to hearing and denies the allegation of being as he is capable of telling his own story beautifully.
The narrator was sharing a house with an old man keeping a very good relationship with him. He badly disliked the pale blue vulture like eyes of the old man which disturbed him very much. To get rid of the eye of the old man, finally he decided to kill him. He entered into the room of the old man with an aim to kill him for 7 nights. However, he came back each time without killing him because he found the vulture like eyes of old man closed. Since only the eye of the old man stimulates his anger, he couldn’t kill the old man because he didn’t see the eyes of the old man.
On the eighth night, in the processes of entering into the room of the old man woke up and sat on his bed. Even after waiting for a long time , he didn’t realized the old man sleeping back , so he opened the lantern and put the ray of light on the vulture like eye which was wide opened. Being sensitive to hearing, he also started hearing the heartbeat of the old man which grew louder every movement. Finally, he became extremely angry. He dragged the old man onto the floor and put heavy bed on him. Soon, the old man died and the heartbeat stopped.
After the death of the old man, he cut his body into pieces very carefully leaving no blood spot on the floor. Removing wooden planks, he hides the dead body in the old man’s room. At four o’clock in the morning three policemen arrived for the investigation as the dying shriek (cry) was overhead by the neighbor who informed the police suspecting some fool play in the house on enquiry. The narrator informed the police that the shriek was of his own in dream and the old man was staying in the village. The policeman searched the house and found nothing unusual. They all sat in the old man’s room and started talking. The narrator began to hear a dull, quick sound and it being made by a watch which he thought to be of an old man. The sound started growing louder every movement and bothered him very much. As he couldn’t stand the sound of the said heart, he told everything to the police and confessed his crime.
Justify the title, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.
The narrator is the victim of nervous disease and over sensitive to hearing. He wants to kill the old man to get rid of the vulture like eyes of the old man. After entering into the room of the old man with and aim to kill him, the narrator starts hearing a strange, dull sound as if being made by a watch which he believes to be the heartbeat of the old man. After killing the old man, he cuts the body into pieces and hides them under the wooden floor. In the morning, when three police officers arrived there, he starts talking with them sitting in the old man’s room as the police officers don’t find anything unusual. However, while being there, the narrator starts hearing strange sound which he believes to be the heartbeat of the old man. As he couldn’t stand the sound of the said heart beat, he confesses his crime and reveals the entire story before the police. Since, the supposed heart discloses the secret of the murder, the title The Tale-Tale Heart is therefore justifiable and appropriate to the text.
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