The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart, short Gothic horror story by Edgar Allan Poe, published in The Pioneer in 1843.

Poe’s tale of murder and terror, told by a nameless homicidal madman, influenced later stream-of-consciousness fiction and helped secure the author’s reputation as master of the macabre. The narrator relates with relish his murder and dismemberment of an old man. Poe’s revelation of the narrator’s madness is a classic study in psychopathology. As his victim quakes with fear, the narrator says, “I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart.” Before killing the old man, the narrator is maddened by what he believes to be his victim’s loud heartbeats. After he commits the murder, the police arrive, having been summoned by a neighbour who heard a scream. While he is talking to the police, the narrator believes he can hear the corpse’s heart still beating, and he hysterically confesses his crime.