The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe: Summary & Analysis

"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe is a chilling short story published in 1843. The tale centers around an unnamed protagonist who vehemently insists on his sanity, despite his precarious mental state. The protagonist becomes fixated on the eerie eye of an old man, which he describes as resembling that of a vulture. Consumed by a growing madness, he meticulously plans and carries out the murder of the old man, dismembering the body and hiding the remains beneath the floorboards of his house. As time passes, the protagonist's mental state further deteriorates, and he begins to hear the phantom beating of the old man's heart coming from beneath the floorboards. This haunting sound intensifies his madness, leading him to confess his crime to the authorities. The story exemplifies nineteenth-century Gothic literature, rich with mysteries and ambiguities surrounding the protagonist's motives and the significance of the vulture eye. Poe skillfully explores the psyc…