The Tell-Tale Heart

Theme
Guilt
The traditional interpretation of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is that it is a moralizing tale about guilt and
innocence. The sound of the pounding heart has been interpreted by some as the narrator's guilty
conscience reminding him of his crime. The narrator ultimately confesses his wrongdoing in this
reading because his remorse has grown so tremendous that he can no longer contain it. However,
this interpretation of his confession is inconsistent with his personality. The narrator disassociates
himself from the crime at the start of the narrative, alleging that he was victimized by an unseen
power. The narrator's conviction that he is sane and that the old man's eye is to blame implies that
he does not regret his actions; he blames the murder on forces beyond his control.

Fear of Morality
According to another interpretation of the narrative, the narrator murders the elderly guy and
confesses because he is afraid of death. He seems fixated on the elderly guy's age and weakness,
as seen by the way he depicts the "vulture-eye" and the old man. He claims to hear "death-beetles"
in the walls and is concerned with the passage of time. After he murders the elderly guy, he loses
track of time, conflating hours and ceasing to pay attention to the ticking of clocks. The narrator
then begins to experience disease-related bodily symptoms. He becomes frail and feeble. The cops
arrive at the residence at this moment, and the sound of a heartbeat fills his ears. This heartbeat
might be taken as the narrator's increased awareness of his mortality and anxiety that he, too, will
die one day, just like the old guy.

Time
Throughout the novel, time is a recurring topic and concept. The narrator seemed to be obsessed
with the passage of time. Before the murder, he keeps track of how much time he spends
monitoring the old guy. When he ultimately murders the elderly guy, he declares that the old man's
"hour had come," a motif that is aided by sound. In the walls, he hears "death bugs," a species of
beetle that makes a clock ticking sound; he hears a watch ticking; he hears the old man's heart beat.