GROUP 3

A T E L L - TA L E H E A R T

By: Edgar Allan Poe

 The writer of “The Tell-Tale Heart”

EDGAR ALLAN POE

AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, United States, on January 19, 1809, and died on
October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, United States.
He was an American writer, critic, journalist, and poet. He is recognized as one of the
fathers of the modern story, as well as the creator of the police genre. In addition, he
was a great writer of both science fiction and horror works.
Edgar’s father died a year after he was born, and his mother, Elizabeth, would die a
year later, in 1811, due to tuberculosis.
Since his older brother was already being cared for by his grandparents, Edgar and his
sister Rosalie were adopted by two neighboring families in Richmond: the one by the
Allan and the other by the Mackenciees.
John Allan, Edgar’s stepfather who would give him his last name, was a trader of
Scottish origin.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
The family had traveled because John Allan had business in the old continent. As these were not
successful, the Allan returned to Richmond in 1820. Here Edgar Allan Poe received education in
the best schools.
When he was 16, Edgar fell in love with a neighbor of his, Sarah Elmira Royster. However, after
enrolling at the University of Virginia, in Carlottesville, he stopped having contact with her and
worsened the relationship with his stepfather, John Allan, for the debts he had due to gambling.
It is said that Poe resorted to the game as a way of survival because money was not enough for
him. It is also said that in this university he had a reputation for being arrogant and pretending, on
many occasions, to know more than he really knew.
Says Cortázar, who translated his work into Spanish, that in this institution Poe would relate for
the first time to alcohol.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Finally, after a year of staying at the University of Virginia, Poe abandoned his studies in 1827
because of the anarchist and decadent climate that surrounded him.
In the middle of that same year, Poe traveled to Norfolk and then to Boston. When he discovered
after several weeks that he did not have the resources to live properly, he enlisted in the army,
lying about his name and his age.
While he was taken along with his regiment to Charleston and was, in turn, promoted to artificer,
his first book, Tamerlane and other poems, circulated in very few hands in Boston. After two
years of service, which had to be five, and being Poe sergeant major of artillery, sought the help
of his stepfather to graduate and finish faster military service.
John Allan, affected by the death of his wife Frances, agreed to help him by enrolling him in the
West Point Academy, although over time he had several discussions with his stepson.
Because of them, Poe drastically changed his behavior and was tried in a court-martial for
disobedience and leaving the service in 1831. New York That same year he left for New York and
published Poems with the help of his former colleagues at the Academy.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
In 1838 he published his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, although with little
success. The following year he became editor in chief of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and
published Cuentos de lo grotesco y arabesco.
In 1840 he started working for Graham’s Magazine and published in it some of his most
representative stories, such as The Crimes of Morgue Street and The Golden Beetle.
This greatly improved his lifestyle, although from 1842 his wife Virginia began to present
symptoms of tuberculosis, and this led Poe to resort to drinking more frequently.
After leaving Graham’s Magazine, and trying several positions, he managed to become the owner
of the Broadway Journal. In 1845, he published his most famous poem, El Cuervo, for which he
would be recognized throughout the country, but of which he would have received only $ 9 for
his publication.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
In 1847 Virginia died of tuberculosis, and Poe’s behavior and mood
were clearly affected, to the point of performing several erratic
actions and inducing him to alcoholism.
Finally, Poe returned to Richmond, where he met his love of youth,
Sarah Elmira Royster. Both agreed to marry on October 17, 1849.
But a delirious Edgar Allan Poe was found in the streets of Baltimore
on October 3, 1849, which would be transferred to Washington
College Hospital, where he would die on October 7 of that year.
same year.
SETTING
• We don't know where the narrator is while he's telling the story of the old
man's murder. The story he tells us takes place inside a random old house
about which few details are directly given. We are told that the old man keeps
his shutters tightly locked. A neighbor hears at least one of the story's two
screams. The cops arrive promptly, just after the narrator has hidden the body.
As such, the house might be in an urban area, possibly a high-crime one.

As to the interior of the house, we only hear about the old man's bedroom,
which is the place where horror plays in the dark while the old man sleeps,
completely unaware. The room is all the more scary because it isn't described,
because we can't see it.
CHARACTERS

• The ill-fated old man

• The homicidal insane narrator
• The neighbor
• The three policemen
THEME
The theme in “The Tell Tale Heart” is guilt.

Edgar Allen Poe is trying to convince the readers that the main
character feels guilty for killing the old man.

There are many parts in the story where Poe wants the reader to
understand that even though the main character seems crazy he still feels
remorse.
PLOT
Exposition: Introduced to the main characters. The mad man and the old man. Tells the
setting and basic conflict, which is the man’s complete revulsion of the old man’s eye.
Rising Action: The narrator plots to kill the old man. Oh my.
Climax: The narrator murders the old man.
Falling Action: The police came to investigate.
Resolution: The mad man hears the heartbeat of the old man and gives his secret,
allowing him to be captured. Problem solved.

According to GradeSaver.com, the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" begins the story by
telling his audience that he is not insane, just nervous and tries to reason with his
audience that he is innocent and his actions are justified. He continues with a calm
justification as to why he killed the old man who lived with him.
LITERARY DEVICES USED
• Repetition – “…I undid the lantern cautiously– oh so cautiously,
cautiously (for the hinges creaked).”
• Situational Irony – “Villains!...dissemble no more! I admit the deed!”
• Simile – “…there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a
watch makes when enveloped in cotton…”
• Foreshadowing – “I was never kinder to the old man the during the
whole week before I killed him.”
• Onomatopoeia – The use of words whose sounds imitate the sounds of
what they describe, “creak, gasp, ha ha!”
• Personification – “Evil Eye”
• Irony – (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers)
LITERARY DEVICES USED
• Metaphor – “A watch’s minute hand moves more quickly than did
mine.”
• Imagery – “He had the eye of a vulture– a pale blue eye, with a film
over it…”
• Dramatic irony – “True-nervous-very very dreadfully nervous I have
been and am! But why will you say that I am mad… Hearken! And
observe how healthily-how calmly I can tell you the whole story.”

There are a lot of simile and personification literary devices used in the
story more than any other literary devices used.
SUMMARY
“The Tell Tale Heart” is a short, but highly effective, horror story written by Edgar Allen Poe and
published in 1843. It is told from the first person point of view of a murderer who tries to
convince the listener of his methodical sanity despite the otherworldly events that lead to his
capture.
The narrator lives with an old man who possesses one filmy, pale blue, “vulture-like” eye that the
narrator despises. It is unclear what relationship the two have, or if there are any other
circumstances leading to the events. The narrator assures the listener that he harbored no hate
for the man other than complete revulsion for the eye. He describes how the hatred of the eye
grew so much he decided to murder the old man. He lays out his plan, insisting to the listener
that his careful detail means that he could not possibly be insane.
For seven nights, he shines a thin ray of light through a crack in the door onto the man’s eye, but
each time the eye is closed, and the narrator is unable to complete his plan. On the eighth night,
the narrator’s hand slips and makes a noise, waking the old man. The narrator doesn’t draw back.
After a few minutes, he opens the lantern and the sliver of light finds the eye open. He hears the
man’s heart beating wildly from terror, and he strikes. He smothers the old man with a pillow.
SUMMARY
Afterward, he dismembers the man and lays the pieces under the floorboards. When the police
arrive, they claim that neighbors heard a scream, but the narrator insists that it was only he
crying out from his nightmares. He is so sure they will never find evidence of his wrongdoing that
he pulls up chairs and invites them to sit down directly over the spot where the old man is
buried.
After a while, the narrator grows uncomfortable and feels a ringing in his ears. It grows louder
and louder, and soon he is convinced that it is the heartbeat of the murdered man coming from
under the floorboards. As the sound grows louder, the narrator becomes terrified of the wild
beating of the heart. He is convinced that the officers not only hear the beating, but that they
also know of his guilt. Finally, the narrator breaks down and confesses, telling the officers to tear
up the floorboards so they can find the pieces of the old man.
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“DEATH TAKES COURAGE AND THEN INVITES YOU

TO A DRINK.” EDGAR ALLAN POE