the tell tale heart analysis essay

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A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is a Gothic novel in miniature. All of the elements of the Gothic novel are here: the subterranean secret, the Gothic space (scaled down from a full-blown castle to a single room), the gruesome crime – even the hovering between the supernatural and the psychological.

In just five pages, it’s as if Edgar Allan Poe has scaled down the eighteenth-century Gothic novel into a story of just a few thousand words. But what makes this story so unsettling?

Closer analysis reveals that ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ centres on that most troubling of things: the motiveless murder.

First, a brief summary of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. An unnamed narrator confesses that he has murdered an old man, apparently because of the old man’s ‘Evil Eye’ which drove the narrator to kill him. He then describes how he crept into the old man’s bedroom while he slept and stabbed him, dragging the corpse away and dismembering it, so as to conceal his crime.

He goes to some lengths to cover up all trace of the murder – he even caught his victim’s blood in a tub, so that none was spilt anywhere – and then he takes up three of the floorboards of the chamber, and conceals his victim’s body underneath. But no sooner has he concealed the body than there’s a knock at the door: it’s the police, having been called out by a neighbour who heard a shriek during the night.

The narrator lets the police officers in to search the premises, and tells them a lie about the old man being away in the country. He keeps his calm while showing them around, until they go and sit down in the room below which the victim’s body is concealed.

The narrator and the police officers talk, but gradually the narrator begins to hear a ringing in his ears, a noise that becomes louder and more insistent. He believes that it is the beating of the dead man’s heart, taunting him from beyond the grave. Eventually, he can’t stand it any more, and tells the police to tear up the floorboards, the sound of the old man’s beating heart driving him to confess his crime.

The narrator of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is clearly unstable, as the end of the story reveals, but his mental state is questionable right from the start, as the jerky syntax of his narrative suggests:

True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

The multiple dashes, the unusual syntactical arrangement, the exclamation and question marks: all suggest someone who is, at the very least, excitable. His repeated protestations that he is sane and merely subject to ‘over acuteness of the senses’ don’t fully convince: there is too much in his manner (to say nothing of his baseless murder of the old man) to suggest otherwise.

A motiveless crime?

And indeed, what makes ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ especially chilling – and here we might draw a parallel with another of Poe’s best-known tales, ‘The Black Cat’ – is that the killer freely confesses that his murder of the old man was a motiveless crime:

I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees –  very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

Murder is never justified, but it is sometimes understandable when a person has been driven to extremes and isn’t thinking clearly. But Poe’s narrator didn’t even kill the old man for something as cynical as financial gain. Even his proffered motive – the old man’s ‘Evil Eye’ – is weak. He has to convince himself that that was why he did it, after the fact : ‘I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!’ (our emphasis).

One can imagine a police detective doing a double-take in the interview room. ‘You think it was his eye?’ This alone makes it clear that we are dealing with an unhinged mind, somebody who, to borrow from Bob Dylan, ‘killed for no reason’. Motiveless murderers are often the most unsettling.

Consider the ‘motiveless malignity’ of Iago , perhaps Shakespeare’s finest villain, who offers a number of potential motives for wanting to destroy the lives of Othello and Desdemona, and in doing so reveals that he very probably doesn’t have a real motive – other than wishing to cause trouble for the hell of it.

Poe and  Macbeth

But Othello is not Poe’s main Shakespearean intertext for ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. Closer analysis of the story reveals that an important precursor-text to ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, and probable influence on Poe, is William Shakespeare’s Macbeth .

Both texts centre on the murder of an ‘old man’; in both cases, the murderer is driven to feel guilt over his crime by being ‘haunted’ by his victim from beyond the grave (Banquo’s ghost in Macbeth , the old man’s beating heart in Poe’s story); both Macbeth and Poe’s narrator show signs of being at least a little mentally unstable; in both texts, the murder of the victim is followed by a knocking at the door.

But what makes Poe’s tale especially effective is the way he employs doubling to suggest that it is perfectly natural that the narrator should be paranoid about the sound coming from the floorboards. For before he had murdered the old man, the narrator had imagined his victim ‘trying to comfort himself’ when he heard a noise outside his bedroom:

All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim.

But of course this is really the narrator projecting his own unease around sounds; and it thus foreshadows his later paranoia over the supposed sound coming from under the floorboards – the sound that will drive him to confess to his crime.

But along with the ‘motiveless’ nature of the narrator’s crime, the other aspect of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ which makes it such a powerful analysis of the nature of crime and guilt is the slight ambiguity hovering over that sound which taunts the narrator at the end of the story.

An ambiguous tale

It seems most likely that the sound exists only in his head, since the policemen are apparently oblivious to it as they continue to chat away calmly to the narrator. (This is the one real weak point in Poe’s story: once they’ve searched the premises they appear to hang around to make small talk with the narrator. Haven’t they got more important things to do? Unless the narrator isn’t as calm at this point as he believes, and they suspect foul play and are trying to get him to reveal something incriminating…)

But we cannot be entirely sure. Even if the sound is supernatural in origin – and Poe was obviously a master of the supernatural, as several of his other best stories attest – it may be that his victim is making his ghostly heartbeat heard only to the narrator, burrowing away deep within his mind.

But on balance we’re tempted to think that Poe, along with Dickens around the same time (compare the studied analysis of the murderer Jonas Chuzzlewit’s mind as he flees the scene), is pioneering a new kind of approach to the ‘ghost story’ here – one in which the ‘ghost’ is no more than a hallucination or phantom of the character’s mind.

Although such ambiguity had been used to good effect by Shakespeare, in the ghost story it is Poe, in such stories as ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, who used this ambiguous plot detail to offer a deeper, more unsettling analysis of the nature of conscience.

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6 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’”

Wonderful article! When I studied Poe in college my premise for one of my best papers centered on whether or not the murderer was sane or insane and even used “Methinks he protests too much” at the end. I believe I could’ve written several papers on this short story alone with several different topics. Again, wonderful article.

Thank you! Good Hamlet allusion too – one of the triumphs of Poe’s story, I think, is the instability of his narrator. Glad you enjoyed our analysis :)

Ahhhhh…and now here you have brought forth one of my most beloved tale tellers. Poe has influenced not only my own tales but my early life as well. Terrific analysis! The ambiguous nature of the conscience brought to fever pitch. :)

Thank you! It’s one of the real gems among Poe’s tales – and as you say, he’s a great tale-teller so there are quite a few to choose from :)

I’ve wondered if the heartbeat was the narrator’s own, since he was in a state of agitation and excitement while talking to the policemen. In any case, it’s a great story, and this is an interesting analysis.

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Literary Analysis of The Tell-Tale Heart

The use of imagery to develop symbols, the work’s organic unity, the interconnectedness of the work, the application of paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension, aesthetic quality of the work, the resolution of contradictions, the correlation between the form of the work and the content, the central passage, works cited.

The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe of an unnamed narrator who murders an older man who lives in the same house as him. The narrator is then haunted by what he thinks is the rapid heartbeat of the deceased man, coming from beneath the floorboards. The Tell-Tale Heart was published in 1843 in a small Boston publication called The Pioneer: A Literary and Critical Magazine. The short story is often presented as a classic of gothic horror. The Tell-Tale Heart centers on the unreliable, unnamed narrator who spends much of the text trying to convince the reader that he is not insane. The narrator goes into excruciating detail on some details of the planned and later executed murder while giving away very little information about himself.

Moreover, the narrator’s case is undermined as he cannot provide a motive for committing the murder. This short story can be analyzed from the formalist literary theory approach, including addressing such questions as to how the imagery was used to develop symbols, the work’s organic unity, and interconnectedness. Moreover, the theory helps to approach the application of paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension, as well as the story’s aesthetic, resolution of contradictions, the content, and central passage of the work.

In The Tell-Tale Heart , the narrator focuses on eyes, particularly the eyes of his victim. The narrator describes it as “the eye of a vulture –a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold” (Poe 3). The narrator’s focus on eyes contrasts his blindness to his actions and condition as he does not see his actions as insane. The narrator believes the old man, his target, is in possession of an evil eye. To counteract the perceived powers of this evil eye, the narrator uses a lantern to shine a slim ray of light on it. The lamp itself sheds light on the truth that the old man was never evil; however, the narrator is blind to this (Amir 20). Both the “evil eye” and the lantern spend much of the story closed, despite the narrator’s obsession. Edgar Allan Poe uses the juxtaposition of eyes and lanterns, both ostensible tools to perceive as a means of presenting the narrator’s real insanity and how it blinds him.

The Tell-Tale Heart is unified through the constant narration of its unnamed protagonist. All the events, real and imagined, are described in varying detail by the narrator, giving the text consistency in tone. The text is filled with the constant narrative that the narrator is not insane, while said narrator provides examples of actions that, in his mind, prove his sanity. While the narrator is unreliable, the text does not switch perspectives and is presented as a whole, making it feel like a story told without pauses. The Tell-Tale Heart contains numerous anaphoras that help reinforces an idea or emphasize an emotion (Amir 22). These assist in creating continuity in the text and familiarizing the reader with the narrator’s tone and style. For example, the narrator, hearing the “tell-tale heart,” says, “It grew louder—louder—louder!” (Poe 8). This creates the sensation of the narrator telling the story out loud to an audience. Overall, Edgar Allan Poe effectively created a unified text with an unreliable, possibly insane narrator.

As a short story, The Tell-Tale Heart does not contain clear parts of chapters; rather, it functions as a singular event described by the narrator. The narrative begins pre-murder, with the narrator describing his target and his reasons for plotting to kill. This transitions into the actual murder and the lead up to it. Lastly, the narrator describes how the body is disposed of, the police arriving, and finally, the sound coming from the floorboards. What connects these events, taking place over at least eight to nine days, is the narrator, particularly the individual’s constant insistence that he is not insane.

Poe applies paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension in his work. The paradox is an illogical and inconsistent observation that can be genuine and valid (Amir 23). The Tell-Tale Heart utilizes this principle in various instances, “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him” (Poe 3). In this case, the paradox adds to the shock value of the scenery, as the readers connect principles and emotions that are not generally put together. The story is meant to shock and surprise; thus, this literary tool is especially valuable.

Moreover, irony implies the situations when the opposite of what is anticipated occurs. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the author has successfully adopted many types of irony to represent the narrative of the story. At the end of the story, the vivid instance of verbal irony is present when highly disturbed by the clock’s ticking noise; he cries, “Villains…Dissemble no more!” (Poe 8). This is ironic because, in reality, the sounds that he hears are coming from a clock. Moreover, Poe is demonstrating the example of situational irony. The narrator performs the murder and hides the body flawlessly, so that police officers do not accuse him of committing this crime (Amir 24). Thus, he fully controls the situation; however, at the same time, he almost admits of his wrongdoings because the narrator believes he can hear the heartbeat of a man.

Ambiguity is connected to a statement that bears more than one meaning. For example, ambiguous rhetoric points to obscurity and uncertainty, which form the basis for occurrences of humourous situations. The short story The Tell-Tale Heart has various instances of ambiguity, including the narrator’s uncertain persona (Sánchez-Verdejo Pérez 130). The author is attempting to present him as a mentally stable individual, which only undeniably proves that he is not. However, Poe describes various troubling details of the crime, including dismemberment from the point of view of the murderer, which adds to the ambiguity of the situation.

Furthermore, tension is the literary element that provokes sensations such as distress, anxiety, nervousness, and fear amongst readers and the characters in a story. When the police officers appear to explore the residence after a neighbor proclaims hearing a scream, the main character pretends to welcome the visitors. Moreover, he encourages them to “search—search well” (Poe 7). Academics determined that this scene has a strong tension between the main character’s pretense in his attempt to disguise his offense and his reaction to what he considers to appear the officers’ dissemblance (Shen 330). Overall, tension is a vital attribute of the story, as it generates additional interest in the conflict, as the readers feel anxious and nervous about this encounter.

The elements mentioned above work to create aesthetic unity in The Tell-Tale Heart. Paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in concert to create a consistent aesthetic throughout the text. Shen argues that Poe uses these elements, as well as rhythm in writing, to bridge the conventions of prose and poetry (325). Within the narrative conventions of the time, prose aesthetically deals with truth, while poetry deals with beauty (Shen 326). While The Tell-Tale Heart does not necessarily conform with the aesthetic sensibilities of its time, Poe successfully uses paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension to create aesthetic consistency in the story. These four elements reinforce each other by revealing the unreliability and insanity of the narrator.

The main character’s abnormal control of the defense goes against established expectations, which adds to the intense contradiction between his declared sanity and genuine madness. However, Poe successfully manages the apparent contradiction within the main character’s behavior. Even more, he uses this as a tool that can be interpreted based on the cultural context. Shen mentions that the protagonist of the story displays the evident symptoms of moral insanity (342). However, he is not one-dimensional and has characteristics of a rational and calm individual. The protagonist calmly tells the story to the officer, quietly handles, and hides the crime. At the same time, he is extremely nervous and has no reasonable motive to kill the man, as he mentions, “He had never wronged me. He had never given me an insult” (Poe 3). Literature suggests that this engagement in contradictions is explicitly satirical, as Poe denies the existence of moral insanity by using the lack of rationality as the individual basis for confirming insanity (Shen 343). Nonetheless, the author is using various tools to make a story more coherent.

The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story, primarily told through a narrator. The short story form also serves to highlight particular aspects of the narrator’s perspective. For example, the narrator exclaims to the audience that the police investigating an old man’s disappearance are villains. The audience is never shown anything that does not first go through the mind of the narrator. This creates a feeling of immediacy for the reader as if they were hearing the confession of the narrator (Shen 330). The confessional form of the text highlights the insanity presented in the content. Poe, engaging with the conventions of his time regarding truth and beauty in poetry and text, uses elements of poetic rhythm to indicate the potentially unreliable verity of the narrative (Shen 325). A confession assumes that the confessor tells the truth; however, the poetic rhythm present in parts of the text indicates the narrator may be unwittingly dishonest.

The text does not contain a central passage, as Poe maintains the consistency of the narrator’s story throughout The Tell-Tale Heart. While the narrator is unreliable and likely insane, Poe avoids using a particular passage to highlight this; instead, the story remains stylistically similar from the beginning to the end. Thus, the readers can spot passages that contain the corresponding meaning throughout the text. For example, the first part of the book includes this comment “why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed” (Poe 3). Furthermore, the statement in the middle of the story is, “And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over acuteness of the senses?” (Poe 6). Therefore, Poe possibly wants readers to notice that the narrator remains consistently insane and does not change throughout the text. Moreover, these passages led some scholars to believe that Poe wants readers to take the over-acute hearing as a fictional event instead of metaphorical (Shen 331). This is clear for literary critics due to the consistency within the passages.

The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe about an individual who kills an older man sharing a house with him. The Tell-Tale Heart can be thoroughly examined from the formalist literary theory method. In the Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator concentrates on eyes, particularly the eyes of his victim, which is a primary symbol of the story. The Tell-Tale Heart’s unity is designed through the continuous narration of its unnamed main character. The author successfully utilizes paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension in the Tell-Tale Heart. These literary components manage to produce aesthetic integration in the story. Moreover, Poe maintains the seeming contradictions within the main character’s behavior by using it as a literary tool. The form of the short story helps to underline critical viewpoints of the narrator’s perspective. Lastly, the story does not bear a focal passage because of the overall consistency of the narrator’s psychological state.

Amir, Shamaila. “Stylistic Analysis of the Short Story’ The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe.” Angloamericanae Journal , vol. 3, no. 1, 2018, pp. 18-28.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. Bantam, 1982. Elegant Ebooks.

Sánchez-Verdejo Pérez, Francisco Javier. “Poe’s Unreliable Narrator: the Reader as a Privileged Witness and the Narrator’s Credibility.” Journal of English and Spanish Studies , no. 5, 2020, pp. 128-150, Web.

Shen, Dan. “Edgar Allan Poe’s Aesthetic Theory, the Insanity Debate, and the Ethically Oriented Dynamics of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.” Nineteenth-Century Literature , vol. 63, no. 3, 2008, pp. 9-23. Web.

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The Tell Tale Heart

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“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Analysis

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843, is a haunting short story not contained within a specific collection.

Introduction: “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Table of Contents

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843, is a haunting short story not contained within a specific collection. It’s a psychological thriller narrated by an unnamed character who insists on their sanity despite describing a meticulously planned murder. The story centers on the narrator’s obsession with the victim’s pale eye and a growing fixation on a sound they believe to be the old man’s beating heart, creating a chilling atmosphere of suspense and unease. As the story progresses, the line between the narrator’s perceived sanity and their deteriorating mental state blurs, leaving the reader to question the truth and grapple with the themes of guilt and madness.

Main Events in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

The Narrator’s Obsession and Murderous Plan:

• The unnamed narrator insists on his sanity despite describing a premeditated murder.
• He becomes fixated on the old man’s pale blue eye with a film over it, calling it a “vulture eye.”
• The narrator denies any motive like passion, greed, or insult, claiming it’s solely the eye that drives him to kill.
• Over several days, the narrator meticulously plans the murder, entering the old man’s room each night to find him asleep.

The Murder and Hiding the Evidence:

• On the eighth night, the narrator accidentally startles the old man awake but manages to keep him still in the dark.
• The narrator describes a growing sense of triumph as he prepares to commit the murder.
• He becomes fixated on a low beating sound, which he believes is the old man’s terrified heart growing louder.
• In a frenzy, the narrator throws open the lantern and murders the old man.
• After the murder, the narrator displays a chilling calmness as he dismembers the body with meticulous care.
• He hides the body parts under the floorboards, confident no human eye could detect anything wrong.

Police Investigation and the Narrator’s Descent:

• The police arrive to investigate a scream heard by a neighbor, arousing suspicion.
• The narrator remains confident and welcomes the officers, inviting them to search the entire house.
• He even leads them to the old man’s room and shows them his undisturbed belongings.
• The narrator’s confidence grows as the officers seem satisfied with his explanations.
• However, the narrator begins to feel increasingly anxious and believes he hears the beating of the old man’s heart growing louder.
• His attempts to appear calm and talkative fail as the sound intensifies in his own mind.
• Driven to the brink, the narrator accuses the officers of mocking him and confesses to the murder, revealing the body’s hiding place.

Literary Devices in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Characterization in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is a complex and unreliable character. Here’s a breakdown of his characterization using examples from the story:

1. Mentally Unstable:

• Example: “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am…” (Paragraph 1). The narrator readily admits his nervousness, which hints at a larger mental issue.
• Example: “How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” (Paragraph 1). He contradicts himself by claiming sanity while exhibiting erratic behavior.

2. Obsessive:

• Example: “It was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” (Paragraph 2). He fixates on a minor physical detail, the old man’s eye, to an unhealthy degree.
• Example: “Every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it—oh, so gently!” (Paragraph 3). The repetition of his nightly routine highlights his obsessive planning and actions.

3. Deceptive:

• Example: “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.” (Paragraph 3). He hides his true intentions by feigning kindness towards the victim.
• Example: “The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them.” (Paragraph 18). He deceives the police with a confident demeanor despite his inner turmoil.

4. Unreliable Narrator:

• Example: “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.” (Paragraph 2). This statement is contradicted by his plan to murder the old man.
• Example: “…every night just at midnight, I looked in upon him while he slept.” (Paragraph 3). He claims the eye bothers him, yet sneaks in nightly even when the eye is closed.

5. Deteriorating Mental State:

• Example: “Ha!—would a madman have been so wise as this?” (Paragraph 3). He questions his own sanity while trying to convince the reader otherwise.
• Example: “Villains! I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!” (Paragraph 19). His mental state crumbles as he confesses the crime due to heightened auditory hallucinations.

Major Themes in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Unreliable Narration and the Descent into Madness: The story unfolds through the eyes of an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity despite exhibiting clear signs of mental instability. His justifications for the murder and his obsession with the old man’s eye reveal a distorted perception of reality. We see this in his opening claim, “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Paragraph 1). Here, he acknowledges his nervousness but denies madness, setting the stage for his unreliable narration. As the story progresses, his actions become increasingly erratic, culminating in his delusional belief that he hears the dead man’s heart beating. This auditory hallucination, a physical manifestation of his guilt, exposes the narrator’s complete descent into madness. (“Villains! I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!” Paragraph 19).
• The Power of Guilt and the Inevitability of Confession: The narrator meticulously plans and commits the murder, believing he can escape punishment. However, guilt gnaws at him, intensifying his anxieties and distorting his senses. His seemingly flawless plan crumbles under the weight of his conscience. The repetition of the phrase “beating of the old man’s heart” (various paragraphs) emphasizes the growing obsession with this imagined sound, a constant reminder of his crime. Despite his attempts to maintain composure during the police visit, his guilt manifests as a heightened sense of hearing, ultimately leading him to confess. (“…every night just at midnight, I looked in upon him while he slept.” Paragraph 3). This unexpected confession highlights the power of guilt and the human psyche’s inability to suppress the truth for long.
• The Duality of Human Nature: The narrator wrestles with a conflict between good and evil. He claims to love the old man yet meticulously plans his murder. This internal struggle reflects the potential for darkness that exists within everyone. We see this duality in his statement, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!” (Paragraph 2). Here, he attempts to justify his actions by blaming the old man’s eye, but the reader is left to question the true motives behind the murder. The story explores the idea that even the most seemingly ordinary person can harbor violent impulses.
• The Thin Line Between Sanity and Madness: The narrator’s deteriorating mental state blurs the line between sanity and madness. His meticulous planning suggests a calculated mind, yet his obsession and hallucinations point towards a fractured psyche. The story raises questions about the nature of madness and how easily it can take hold. We see this blurring in his self-reflection, “Ha!—would a madman have been so wise as this?” (Paragraph 3). He questions his own sanity while trying to convince the reader otherwise, leaving the reader to wonder if he was ever truly sane to begin with. “The Tell-Tale Heart” explores the terrifying possibility that madness can creep in subtly, distorting reality and leading to horrific acts.

Writing Style in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Vivid and Haunting Imagery (Paragraph 3) * “I turned the latch of his door and opened it—oh, so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out…”
• Repetition (various paragraphs) * “beating of the old man’s heart” – This phrase is repeated throughout the story, emphasizing the narrator’s obsession and growing anxiety.
• First-Person Point of View (Paragraph 1) * “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am…” – The story unfolds through the eyes of the unnamed narrator, placing the reader directly in his thoughts and deteriorating mental state.

Literary Theories and Interpretation of “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Questions and Thesis Statements about “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Narrator’s Unreliability
• Guilt and the Inevitable Confession
• The Descent into Madness
• Symbolism and Meaning
• Gothic Elements and Atmosphere
• Psychological Exploration of Character
• How does the narrator’s unreliable narration impact the story’s suspense and horror?
• In what ways does the story explore the themes of guilt and the urge to confess?
• How does the narrator’s mental state deteriorate throughout the story?
• What are the symbolic meanings of the vulture eye, the darkness, and the beating heart?
• How do classic gothic elements contribute to the overall atmosphere of dread and unease?
• To what extent does the story offer a realistic portrayal of a troubled mind?

Thesis Statements

• Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” utilizes an unreliable narrator to create a chilling atmosphere of suspense and expose the inevitable breakdown of a guilt-ridden conscience.
• The relentless sound of the beating heart in “The Tell-Tale Heart” serves not only as a symbol of the murdered man but also as a physical manifestation of the narrator’s overwhelming guilt, ultimately leading to his confession.
• Through the portrayal of a character’s descent into madness in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe explores the terrifying possibility of how seemingly ordinary individuals can harbor violent impulses and ultimately succumb to their own distorted perceptions.
• By employing symbolic elements like the vulture eye and the beating heart, Poe imbues “The Tell-Tale Heart” with deeper meaning, suggesting a battle between good and evil and the enduring power of guilt.

Short Questions and Answer about “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Literary Works Similar to “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw” utilizes an unreliable first-person narrator, much like Poe’s, creating a story shrouded in ambiguity regarding the protagonist’s sanity and the existence of the supernatural.
• Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla,” a foundational vampire tale, shares “The Tell-Tale Heart’s” chilling atmosphere and dependence on an unreliable narrator, keeping the reader guessing about the protagonist’s perceptions and the truth of the vampiric threat.
• Shirley Jackson’s “ The Lottery ,” a masterpiece of suspense with a shocking twist ending, explores the darkness within human nature, similar to Poe’s works.
• Jackson’s “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” delves into psychological themes and the blurring of reality, reminiscent of the mental deterioration depicted in “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “ The Yellow Wallpaper ,” a powerful indictment of societal norms and the treatment of mental illness, echoes Poe’s exploration of psychological deterioration under societal pressures.

Suggested Readings: “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Eichinger, Sanford. “The Madness of Crowds: ‘Ligeia’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.'” Poe Studies 11.1 (1978): 1-8. Analyzes the theme of madness in both “Ligeia” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
• Kennedy, J. Gerald. “Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.'” Studies in Short Fiction 5.2 (1968): 147-154. Offers a critical analysis of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” focusing on narrative structure and symbolism.
• Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book I: Freud’s Papers on Technique 1953-1954 . Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, translated by Jacques-Alain Miller with Russell Grigg. W.W. Norton & Company, 1988. This influential work by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan can be applied to analyze the psychological aspects of “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Online Resource:

• Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/tell-tale-heart-edgar-allen-poe-american-stories/2634706.html (Accessed March 23, 2024). The full text of the story, a valuable resource for any analysis.

Related posts:

• “The Use of Force” by William Carlos Williams
• “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce: Analysis
• “Civil Peace” by Chinua Achebe: Analysis
• “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor: Analysis

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• Annotated Full Text
• Literary Period: Gothic
• Publication Date: 1843
• Flesch-Kincaid Level: 5
• Approx. Reading Time: 10 minutes
• The Tell-Tale Heart

First published in 1843 in The Pioneer, “The Tell-Tale Heart” features many of the signature elements of an Edgar Allan Poe short story: a dark gothic setting, an unhinged narrator, and a tense plot. The unity of these elements creates an emotional response in readers that is further elicited through tone, word choice, conflict, etc. The tale begins in the middle of the narrative as Poe’s unnamed narrator begins explaining himself to an undisclosed audience, creating a conspiratorial, confessional tone that pulls readers in. Poe’s narrator describes the steps he took to murder a helpless old man, driven only by his hatred of the old man’s eye. The sentences are choppy, the frequent repetition and self-interruption indicative of the narrator’s unhinged mental condition. As the methods of the crime are revealed, readers enter into a study in madness, witnessing the narrator’s hallucinations and ultimately encountering his delusions firsthand when he reveals the body beneath the floorboards.

Table of Contents

• Character Analysis
• Historical Context
• Literary Devices

Study Guide

• Edgar Allan Poe Biography

Teaching Resources

• The Tell-Tale Heart Metaphor Activity

The Tell-Tale Heart

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Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Analysis: “The Tell-Tale Heart”

The story’s opening paragraph introduces the idea of mental illness. The narrator’s repetition of words like “nervous,” “mad,” and “heard” foreshadows the main themes: madness caused by sharpened senses and denial of madness by the person suffering from it. Thus, the short story can also be read as an investigation of the concept of “insanity defense,” which gained notoriety in 1843 in the wake of Daniel M’Naghten’s murder trial.

The narrator’s obsession with a particular body part, an eye, illustrates the process of mental deterioration. It also marks the beginning of a process of dehumanization. By divorcing the old man as a person from his eye, the murderer can compartmentalize their emotions. They state that “I loved the old man” and that it was “not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye,” demonstrating how the eye becomes a separate, personified entity in the narrator’s mind (Paragraphs 2, 3). The body dismemberment after the murder further renders the old man into pieces of flesh, creating a sense of dissociation from the crime.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Tell Tale Heart — Analysis Of The Tell-Tale Heart

Analysis of The Tell-tale Heart

• Categories: Edgar Allan Poe The Tell Tale Heart

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Words: 942 |

Published: Apr 29, 2022

Words: 942 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

Hook examples for "the tell-tale heart" essay, "the tell-tale heart" essay example.

• An Eerie Opening: Picture a dimly lit room, a vengeful heart, and the relentless sound of a heartbeat. Join me as we descend into the chilling world of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" to unravel the depths of madness and guilt.
• An Intriguing Quote: Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, "True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" Let's delve into the narrator's confession and the psychological intricacies that lie within.
• A Psychological Exploration: What drives a person to commit murder and then be haunted by the sound of their victim's heart? Join me in a deep dive into the disturbed mind of the narrator, as we dissect the elements of obsession, guilt, and madness in the story.
• An Unreliable Narrator: The narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" is anything but reliable. Explore with me how his unreliability as a storyteller adds layers of complexity to the narrative, blurring the lines between truth and delusion.
• A Tale of Darkness: "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a masterpiece of Gothic literature. Let's journey together through the macabre and mysterious elements that define this story and examine how Poe's writing style amplifies the sense of dread and horror.

Works Cited

• Bloom, H. (2003). Hamlet: Poem Unlimited. Riverhead Books.
• Boyce, C. (2019). Revenge and Gender in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Routledge.
• Coddon, K. (2010). Shakespeare, Violence, and the Early Modern Stage. Oxford University Press.
• Dusinberre, J. (2007). Shakespeare and the Nature of Man. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Garber, M. (2013). Shakespeare and Modern Culture. Anchor Books.
• Greenblatt, S. (2010). Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton University Press.
• Kastan, D. S. (2002). Shakespeare after Theory. Routledge.
• Mowat, B. A., & Werstine, P. (Eds.). (2006). Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Folger Shakespeare Library.
• Smith, E. (2012). Hamlet and Revenge. Edinburgh University Press.
• Wells, S. (2003). Hamlet: A Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan.

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Analysis of the Short Story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe

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The Tell-Tale Heart Psychological Analysis & Critique

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Looking for The Tell-Tale Heart psychological analysis? This term paper focuses on the themes, symbolism, and point of view in the short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It also reviews the mental disorder that the narrator suffers from.

Introduction

• Literary Analysis

Works Cited

The Tell-Tale Heart is one of the most famous works by Edgar Poe. The outstanding character in the tale, who is also the narrator, attracts a lot of attention from the readers. The character reveals much about human nature and other self qualities that people tend to overlook.

Themes of death, egoism, and evil are found in most of Poe’s works. The same case applies to The Tell-Tale Heart as evidenced by the analysis in this paper. The analysis focuses on the main character and narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart. The analysis is conducted from a psychological approach.

There are various forms of literary psychological criticism. In this paper, the author uses the Freudian psychological approach to analyse Poe’s work. The narrator forms the basis of the tale. All the themes in the story revolve around them.

The literary critique explores the themes of death, ego, and evil as reflected in Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart . The themes of ego and evil are featured prominently in this critical review.

The two contribute immensely to the narrator’s actions. The literary criticism of the tale seeks to answer the question of human ego-evil relationship and associated psychological justifications. Freud’s psychological approach serves in analysing the narrator’s actions towards the old man.

The Tell-Tale Heart Summary

Edgar Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart tale adopts the first person perspective. The main character also assumes the role of the narrator. He begins the story by arguing that they are sane and not mad as people are saying.

The narrator says, “True!- nervous -very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses- not destroyed -not dulled them” (Poe par. 1). However, Poe does not tell the reader whether the narrator is a male or a female. The usage of the connotation ‘He’ does not describe definite gender of the narrator, but just as an assumption.

The narrator admits that they are sick. However, they insist that the disease has sharpened their senses. The disease has not made them mad. In a bid to prove their sanity to the audience, the narrator embarks on the story. The events told in the story take place in a house where the narrator lives with an old man as a companion. The narrator claims that they loved the old companion very much.

As such, they did not have any reason or desire to kill him, not even for his money. The narrator reveals that they loved the old man. They were in good terms with the old man, and the narrator was not interested in stealing from him (Poe par. 2).

However, it appears that the old man had a deformed eye that instigated the narrator to commit the murder. In fact, if it were not for the eye, the story would have been very different. It follows then that the narrator has a motive to kill the old man.

Consequently, they scheme on how to execute the heinous crime. For seven consecutive nights, they stalked the companion throughout. They went to the extent of intensifying their affection for him to keep him close. On the eighth night, an opportunity presented itself and the narrator killed the old man.

The act of murder execution proceeds with extreme caution and the body concealment. However, a last minute shriek by the old man, or probably the excited yell of the narrator, changed the events. The arrival of police officers to the scene immediately after the crime attests to this.

The police arrived to a warm welcome from the narrator. Their arrival, they attribute to a scream they had been alerted to having emanated from the house. The police search the entire building but find nothing. Eventually, the narrator invited the two police officers into the deceased old man’s bedroom for a chat.

While there, however, the narrator imagined hearing the old man’s heartbeat. The heartbeat got louder and louder as the narrator and the two police officers chatted away in the bedroom. Finally, the imaginary noise freaked the narrator out. Eventually admits to having killed the old man, and in proof of his crime shows the police officers where he hid the dismembered body.

The Tell-Tale Heart Literary Analysis

Plot: psychological journey.

Poe adopts a very interesting approach in writing the story. The main character, who also performs the heinous murderous act, tells the story. As a result, we assume the story is a confession. The confession is evident given that even the narrator insists they can prove their sanity to the audience.

The location of the story remains unclear. However, an analysis of the story creates the impression that the location is a courtroom. Such an assumption looks fair given that the court could have declared the narrator to be of unsound mind. The story ends with the narrator revealing to the police officers where he hid the body. As such, it is likely that they are making the confession while under arrest.

The Tell-Tale Heart Themes

Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart story is riddled with a number of themes. The numbers of themes vary depending on the analytical approach chosen to review the story. As already indicated, the current analysis relies on the psychological approach of literary critique. Hence, from the perspective of this approach, it appears that several themes are apparent in the story.

The main themes in the story include ego, murder, evil, obsession, insanity, and guilt. Others include reality viewpoints, justification, time, and cleverness. The themes of evil, ego, murder and insanity are very dominant in the story.

From the start of the story, the narrator insists on being sane. Consequently, the narrator details their heinous crime to prove their sanity. Even after the detailed narration, the narrator still insists on their sanity. They insist that they took a lot of precautions to cover their tracks, something that can only be done by a sane man (Poe par. 8).

In a number of instances, the narrator reminds the audience how cleverly they executed the murder. The assertion is evident when they claim, “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded –with what caution –with what foresight –with what dissimulation I went to work!” (Poe par. 3).

Despite the frantic effort to convince his sanity, the narrator falls under Freud’s psychic zone of id. The id zone has a number of distinct characteristics. It is characterised by an excite­ment that is disorganized and lacks will. It is an impulsive drive that is aimed at satisfying the instincts and pleasures of the individual (Freud 103).

About the theme of murder, the narrator’s motive is amusing, if not ridiculous. The ‘admitted motive’ is evident when the narrator says that the old man had the eye of a vulture. They describe it as “a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees –very gradually –I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe par. 2).

The execution of the heinous crime is almost perfect. The narrator leaves no trace behind. However, their confession raises doubts about their sanity. It is clear that the narrator is a ruthless murderer, considering how they killed and dismembered the old man’s body for concealment.

The theme of obsession, and in some part that of guilt, is apparent from the beginning of the story. The desire to murder the old man increases whenever the narrator sees his deformed eye. It appears the narrator is obsessed with the deformed eye. The obsession to murder the old man based on his bad eye intensifies when the narrator sees him in bed.

The narrator does not exhibit obvious psychological motives. However, killing the old man based on the feelings the eye stirs in them is an indication of a possible motive. Indeed, motives for individual actions arise from thoughts, feelings, and fantasies. The narrator fantasises killing the old man, revealing this aspect of human thinking in the process.

Such an obsession and the narrator’s erratic behaviour, together with how they narrate the story, leave no doubt that they are insane. In fact, the narrator believes that the heartbeat of the dead old man nearly drove them insane to the extent of confessing to the crime. They describe how they shrieked and showed the police where they had hidden the body (Poe par. 10).

The Tell-Tale Heart Character Analysis

The story has six major characters. They include narrator, the old man (who ends up as the victim), the neighbour, and the three police officers. However, the story revolves more around the narrator and the old man than it does around the other characters.

In fact, one can argue that the narrator and the old man are the main characters. The other four are just supporting characters. Poe is not clear on the identity of the narrator’s audience. It is not clear whom the narrator is trying to convince with the confession.

The Tell-Tale Heart Narrator

Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart revolves a lot around human nature. Human nature is made evident from the narrator’s viewpoint. The narrator is very confident in the execution of the heinous crime. They are confident enough to confess about the same. The desire to prove their sanity is even more intriguing. As a result, the narrator creates a picture of self-worthiness, self-conviction, and lack of remorse.

The narration turns out to be a perfect rhetoric in relation to the narrator. From the beginning to the end of the story, the narrator makes the reader view their deeds with contempt a number of times. Perhaps, as Zimmerman puts it, The Tell-Tale Heart is in real sense a form of courtroom rhetoric-judicial. It is a form of forensic oratory (Zimmerman Frantic Forensic Oratory 34).

The narrator appears determined to convince someone with his or her confession. The determination is evident when they insist that mad men know nothing (Poe par. 3). The narrator’s reference to “you” clearly shows that they are addressing someone else.

Perhaps the narrator is writing to or conversing with this ‘you’. The narrator tries to persuade and guide the audience to their point of view. Essentially, it is clear that the narrator has already confessed to the crime. They have already shown the police the body before their confession (Poe par. 10).

The narrator is defending themselves in the story. They do not regard the heinous act with any remorse or contempt. From this analysis, one can argue that the story reveals one major aspect of human nature that is inherent to many individuals. Generally, many people tend to overlook their individual flaws and faults. They may do everything in their power to cover up these flaws and faults (Bonaparte 32).

Ki points out the theme of “ego-evil”, which underlies the ‘main’ human nature highlighted in the narration (25). By definition, ego-evil refers to human behaviour that is, according to Zizek (70), driven by the desire for selfish gains and greed.

Such behaviour is very apparent concerning the conduct of the narrator. When one disregards the sanity of the narrator, which they seem to assert loudly, a sensible motive for their action is lost. In the words of the narrator, the old man had not done anything to anger them, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me” (Poe par. 2).

From the discourse above, it is apparent that associating the narrator with ego-evil behaviour is logical. In essence, the narrator’s actions are motivated by some form of ideological ideal. The actions also emanate from their fanatical devotion (Ki 25).

The narrator’s egocentrism is apparent in their ‘over-identification’ with the views they hold. Such a trait on the part of the narrator ultimately leads to a form of “narcissistic ‘denigradation’ of others and violation of human laws” (Zizek 70).

The narrator claims killing the old man due to his bad eye. In essence, the narrator admits the old man’s vulture eye is what made them commit the offense (Poe par. 2). Such an explanation tells a lot about the narrator’s state of mind. Regarding the old man’s eye as identical to that of a vulture gives the narrator the motivation they need to commit the crime.

With such an attitude, they could easily kill the man without any remorse. As such, the narrator judged the old man based on personal affections, rather than on truth. Ki (25) explains this behaviour from a psychological perspective.

According to Ki (25), an intentional misjudgement of another person is an indication of the shortcomings of the self. It means that the self lacks insight (Ki 25). Killing the old man would rid the narrator the ‘torturing’ eye. Such an explanation appears valid from a psychological perspective.

The narrator is a true representation of ‘self-misrepresentation’. Their character also shows the narrator has ‘misdirected’ sense of self-worth and self-righteousness. Both of these aspects are blown out of proportion concerning the narrator. From the onset of the narrative, the persona appears determined to point out their strengths, which are in doubt.

In their narration, the persona says that the disease has only made their senses shaper. They claim to have heard things from heaven and from earth. According to them, this is proof enough that they are sane and not mad (Poe par. 1).

The narrator’s sense of self is terrible, especially with regards to their senses. Such a convoluted sense of self leads to another conclusion. The conclusion is that the narrator is psychotic. The psychotic nature of the narrator is the first impression created in the mind of the reader at the beginning of the narrative. However, the narrator endeavours to prove otherwise in the narrative.

Further analysis of the narration reveals that the persona is a ‘self-positing’ individual. They try to create the impression of an individual who is very right. They claim that they discovered their powers on that night. They were so happy when they discovered how intelligent they are (Poe par. 4). Such a ‘perception of self’ means that the narrator likes to exercise their powers on others.

Perceptions of own power, triumph, and sagacity also portray the narrator as a person who likes to dominate the helpless. The old man was asleep and half-blind due to the darkness and his bad eye, yet the narrator was triumphant of killing him. Pitcher (232) portrays the narrator in Poe’s tale as someone living in a universe where the self is the only god that exists.

Eventually, it is apparent that the narrator fails miserably to convince the audience of their sanity or self-importance. According to Melville (34), the narrator appears to fully understand the various techniques of argument. They are trying desperately to convince the audience.

Initially, the narrator indicates that they are aware of what the audience thinks of them. The narrator is aware that the audience considers them as a hostile, nervous, and lunatic person. Because of this awareness, the narrator attempts to win over the good will of whoever is listening to them.

The narrator lodges an appeal to the audience’s sense of reason to mitigate the hostility directed towards them. Such an appeal is also aimed at making the audience more receptive. The narrator tells the audience that they wish they were there when they were committing the offense. The audience, according to the narrator, would have seen for themselves how efficient and wise they (the narrator) are (Poe par. 3).

The narrator strategically makes use of concession as a means of ethical appeal. They try to impress the audience by proving that they can make frank confessions. They create the impression that they are a good person with a strong and confident streak. They try to prove that they can confidently concede and nullify opposing points of view.

The nature of Poe’s character in the story can be summed up from John Claggart’s psychoanalysis perspective (as cited in Melville). Thus, “the narrator’s even temper and discerning bearing would seem to point to an individual peculiarly exposed to the law of reason” (Melville 76). The narrator has little or nothing to do with reason.

They only employ it as an ‘ambidexterity’ means of irrational affections. Such evaluation implies that the narrator is engaging in wanton atrocities that appear to be the reserve of the insane. They are engaging in such acts based on very ‘direct’ and ‘cool’ judgement. As such, one can conclude that the narrator is a mad man and very dangerous.

According to Zimmerman ( Moral Insanity or Paranoid Schizophrenia? 42), Poe effectively maintains an objective distance in telling the story and watches as the reader tackles the etiological irony that follows. Poe uses rhetoric consciously and deliberately in most of his homicidal tales.

He also engages in irony in most of his arguments. Most of Poe’s characters try to justify their actions using ‘reasonable’ excuses that are not so ‘reasonable’. Such an approach is apparent in The Tell-Tale Heart story.

Bonaparte, Marie. The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psycho-Analytic Interpretation, London: Hogarth P., 1949. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners , New York: James A. McCann Co., 1920. Print.

Ki, Magdalen. “Ego-Evil and the Tell-Tale Heart.” Renascence 61.1 (2008): 25-38. Print.

Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1962. Print.

Pitcher, Edward. “The physiognomical meaning of Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.” Studies in Short Fiction 16.3 (1979): 231-233. Print.

Poe, Edgar 1922, The Tell-Tale Heart . Web.

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IvyPanda. (2019, April 20). The Tell-Tale Heart Psychological Analysis & Critique. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literary-criticism-of-edgar-poes-the-tell-tale-heart-from-a-psychological-approach-term-paper/

"The Tell-Tale Heart Psychological Analysis & Critique." IvyPanda , 20 Apr. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/literary-criticism-of-edgar-poes-the-tell-tale-heart-from-a-psychological-approach-term-paper/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'The Tell-Tale Heart Psychological Analysis & Critique'. 20 April.

IvyPanda . 2019. "The Tell-Tale Heart Psychological Analysis & Critique." April 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literary-criticism-of-edgar-poes-the-tell-tale-heart-from-a-psychological-approach-term-paper/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Tell-Tale Heart Psychological Analysis & Critique." April 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literary-criticism-of-edgar-poes-the-tell-tale-heart-from-a-psychological-approach-term-paper/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Tell-Tale Heart Psychological Analysis & Critique." April 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literary-criticism-of-edgar-poes-the-tell-tale-heart-from-a-psychological-approach-term-paper/.

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