The Tell-Tale Heart
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"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, which was first published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843; Poe republished it in his periodical The Broadway Journal for August 23 1845. It is widely considered a classic of the Gothic fiction genre and is one of Poe's most famous short stories.
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Story
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is the first-person narrative of an unnamed narrator who is taking care of an old man with a clouded eye. His feverishly heightened senses (probably caused by hypochondria) lead to an irrational fear of the clouded eye (perhaps afflicted with glaucoma or a severe cataract). The fellow becomes so distressed with the eye that he plots to murder the old man. For many nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, watching and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. However, the old man's eye is shut, hiding the clouded eye, and the narrator loses the urge to kill. One night, though, the old man awakens as the narrator watches, revealing the eye, and the narrator strikes, smothering him with his own mattress. The narrator chops the body up, hides the pieces under the floorboards, and dresses the room so as to hide all signs of the crime. When the police respond to a call placed by a neighbor who heard the old man's screams, the narrator invites them to look around, confident they will not find any evidence of the murder. They sit around the old man's room, right on top of the very hiding place of the corpse, yet suspect nothing. The narrator, however, begins to hear a faint noise. As the noise grows louder, he realizes it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the floorboards. He grows paranoid at the fact that the officers seem to pay no heed to the sound, being loud enough to hear. Coupled with the beating of the heart and the narrator's feeling that the officers must be aware of the heartbeats, he loses his cool and bids them tear up the floorboards to reveal the body.
Throughout the story the narrator insists that he is sane, simultaneously giving the impression of serious derangement.
Works Inspired
An animated film version by UPA, The Tell-Tale Heart (1953), is included among the films preserved in the United States National Film Registry.
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is one of several songs inspired by Poe stories on the album Tales of Mystery and Imagination (original version 1976, CD remix 1987) by The Alan Parsons Project. It is sung in an appropriately hysterical style by Arthur Brown.
In 2003, Lou Reed released The Raven, an album solely based on poems and short-stories by Poe; featured was The Tell-Tale Heart.
In 1995, Mojo Press and artist Bill Fountain published a collection of graphic versions of Poe stories under the title The Tell Tale Heart, featuring a female character as the tortured narrator of the title story.
An episode of The Simpsons ("Lisa's Rival" September 11, 1994) featured a Tell-Tale-Heart-inspired act of revenge between Lisa and a new student (voiced by Winona Ryder). Another of Poe's works, "The Raven", was presented in a segment of the very first Treehouse of Horror episode. The season 1 episode titled The Telltale Head is a reference to the Tell-Tale Heart.
The song "Ol' Evil Eye" is a retelling of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and contains quoted excerpts from the story between original verses. It is track 13 on The Riddle Box by Insane Clown Posse.
An episode of the cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants parodied the short story. Instead of an old man, it is a pair of squeaky boots that slowly drives Mr. Crabs insane. At the end, all the noises turn to squeaks, and he admits his guilt, taking the boots from under the floorboard. He then shrinks and eats them.
The song "My Bloody Valentine" by Good Charlotte.
Telly Taley Heart, a filk song by Tom Smith to the tune of Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus.
Themes
Poe's short stories often have a single, unified theme that reaches the reader via diction, characterization, plot, dialogue, and other elements. The theme of this story might be guilt or madness.