The Tell-Tale Heart

Summary

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a dark and intense short story by Edgar Allan Poe, narrated by an unnamed storyteller obsessed with the idea of killing an old man with whom he lives. His hatred is not directed at the old man himself, but at his eye, which resembles a "vulture's eye" and fills the narrator with unbearable dread. The narrator meticulously plans the murder, watching the old man every night as he sleeps. Finally, one night, he decides to act. He sneaks into the old man's room and, in a fit of madness, kills him, then dismembers the body and hides the parts under the floorboards. However, shortly after committing the crime, the police arrive, summoned by neighbors who heard a scream. The narrator confidently interacts with the officers, even inviting them to inspect the house and sitting with them in the room where the body is hidden. But gradually, his confidence begins to crumble. He starts hearing an increasingly loud and insistent sound, which he believes is coming from beneath the floor—the beating heart of the murdered old man. The sound becomes unbearable, and eventually, in a fit of panic and despair, the narrator confesses to the murder, revealing his crime.