Title: The Tell-Tale Heart
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Genre: Short Story
The book starts with the unknown narrator, whose gender, name, and age are unclear, telling the readers about a disease that he got that sharpened his senses and didn't destroy or dull them. The narrator explains how, above all of his senses, the most sharpened was his hearing. He could hear all things in the heavens and hell. Then he confesses to the readers how he murdered an old man who was his friend; then he goes on to tell how he did it and why.
The narrator starts to tell the readers how it is impossible to tell how the idea came into his mind and how he The narrator confesses to feeling pressured to murder the old man by the old man's single "pale blue eye," the eye of a "vulture" he said had a white film over it, which tells the readers that the old man is blind in one eye. The storyteller calls it an "Evil Eye" and is obsessed with getting rid of it, despite claiming that they loved the old man, who never abused, mistreated, or did them wrong. The narrator explains that whenever the eye fell [upon him, their blood ran cold by many degrees, and very gradually, they made up their mind to murder the old man to rid themselves of the eye.
Before committing the murder, seven nights in a row, in the middle of the night, the narrator carefully opens the old man's door slowly to the old man's bedroom. Then, they shine a single ray of light on his sleeping eye, which remained closed each night. On some nights, the narrator would take so long to carefully enter the old man's room so the man wouldn't detect him. For example, one night, they explain how it took them an hour to put their head in the man's door and make sure it didn't creak and disturb his sleep. They also explained how he would undo the lantern cautiously because the hinges squeak. Since the narrator dispatches the eye and not the man, they keep postponing the terrible murder.
When it was morning, they went to the chamber very boldly and spoke courageously to the old man. They called the old man by name in a hearty tone, and every day, they would ask the man how his sleep was. He did all this to ensure the old man wouldn't suspect that they were staring at him every night at noon as he slept. The narrator's actions wake the old man on the eighth night. The murderer does not withdraw or jump back in fear, but he completely stays still because it is completely pitch black in the room, and they remain invisible. The old man asks who is there, but the narrator remains silent, enjoying a sense of power and incognito over the poor old man.
The two men remain still for an hour, not moving an inch. The narrator waits, and the old man tries but fails to calm himself. Upon hearing a sound like a groan of fear, he hears the old man trying to calm himself down by saying, "It is nothing," and that he is just imagining things.
Eventually, the murderer opens the lantern, so a tiny ray of light enters the old man's eye. The narrator then starts to hear what he thinks "like the ticking of a watch enveloped in cotton." The murderer continues waiting, shining the tiny ray of light onto the "evil eye" as the heartbeat grows progressively louder. The murderer, in fear that the neighbors would hear the heartbeat, suddenly opens the lantern all the way and jumps into the room jumps into the room. The old man shouts in terror. The murderer then drags the old man to the floor and throws the bed onto the old man, covering him completely. The old man's heart keep beating for a while until it eventually slows down. Then, the narrator stops and removes the bed from on top of the old man's body. The old man is stone dead.
The narrator tells us how he dismembers and butchers the body into different pieces and puts it under the wooden planks on the floor. When he was done, there were no traces of blood, and he put the planks back into position so perfectly that even he couldn't find any mistakes. At that exact moment, there was a knock on the door. When the door opens, three policemen come in. They want to search the property for any problems because the neighbor of the old man reported a scream, and because of his confidence and nothing to fear, he lets them in and when they search everything, Everywhere, they are finally satisfied, and then the murderer, in his confidence, brings chairs for them to sit on and talk. Then, the officers start to chat.
The narrator then starts to feel sick and unwell. He was suffering from a headache, and his ears began to ring. The narrator tries to get rid of the unpleasant feeling that he is getting, but the ringing continues. Eventually, the murderer realizes that it sounds "like the ticking of a watch covered in cotton." The noise continues to get louder and louder, and he gets up to mask the sound by pacing on the floorboards so the officers won't hear it. The narrator then thinks that the officers can listen to it and that they already know about the murder and are pretending not to know, even though they didn't.
This leads to the narrator losing his confidence and cool and confessing to the police officers and telling them to rip open the floorboards. The story ends with the readers thinking that the old man is still alive, but the narrator has already butchered the body and was dead. The noise was the narrator's heartbeat because he started feeling nervous and guilty. He could hear it because of his disease that boosted his hearing; that was also why he thought the neighbor of the old man would listen to the old man's heartbeat.
I liked this short story because it was fascinating. Edgar Allan Poe, like always, makes it really lovely and makes the readers think a little bit to understand the book. I also liked that he made it a mystery of the narrator's gender and age and who they were. This short story has a lot of suspense and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I read it. If you read this book and liked it you should try reading:
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Monkey Paw by W.W. Jacobs
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
Good Job!