He continues with the story and tells us that on the night of the murder he went to the old man’s room with more caution. Ironically, in the morning he would ask the old man how he spent the night. He would return annoyingly as it is his “Evil Eye” which motivates him to murder him. He would examine the old man’s eye with the help of his lantern and would find it close. He informs his readers that for seven continuous nights he would go into the old man’s room, quietly, and would wait for the exact moment to commit the crime. The narrator says that the old man’s eye angered him so he made up his mind to kill him to shut that eye once and for all.Īgain he tries to prove his sanity by admitting that he planned carefully to murder the old man making us aware that an insane person cannot plan. He hated his vulture-like eye and it persuaded him to murder the old man. The motive behind the murder was not his wealth and gold, however, one of his eyes made him kill the old man. He loved the old man who never harmed him. He confesses that there was no motive for what he did. Then he tells the listener to listen carefully as he narrates the story. He tells the imaginary listener that he is more vigilant now and is able to hear everything. Furthermore, he announces that the illness has given him more strength especially to his “sense of hearing”. He confesses that he has been ill but denies the fact that he is insane.

The Tell Tale Heart SummaryĪt the start of the story, the narrator is answering an imaginary listener. The story also explores the paranoiac state of mind of the narrator. The unreliable narrator in the story brutally murders the old man irrationally and without any reason. The story is a proof of human being’s inherently evil nature. The setting and diction used in the story make it a classic Poe story. The story is one of the classics of Poe’s short stories and of its genre. Poe only focuses on the events and situations which lead to the killing rather than focusing on individuals. We do not know, as readers, whether the narrator is a male or a female. Furthermore, Poe has not given us detail about the narrator’s relationship with the old man. The untrustworthy narrator does not have a solid reason to murder the old man (apart from his hatred for the old man’s eye).

Eventually, he cannot bear the secret anymore and confesses his crime to the policemen.

His guilty conscience constantly pricks him and reminds him of his brutal act. He also receives the policemen with utmost comfort but, slowly and gradually, his anxiety increases. He attends to every minute detail in the process of murder carefully kills him, disjoints every part of his body, and then buries the body parts underground in the room. The old man’s “vulture-eye” makes the narrator angry and he decides to kill him.

The tell tale heart full text