Question 1

What is The Tell-Tale Heart about?

Accepted Answer

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe is a Gothic short story about an unnamed narrator who murders an old man because of his pale blue "vulture eye." The narrator meticulously plans and executes the crime, dismembering the body and hiding it beneath floorboards. However, overwhelming guilt manifests as an auditory hallucination of the victim's beating heart, driving the narrator to confess to police.

Question 2

Who wrote The Tell-Tale Heart and when was it published?

Accepted Answer

Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Tell-Tale Heart, first publishing it in January 1843 in James Russell Lowell's magazine *The Pioneer*. Poe was an American writer, poet, and literary critic widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States. He is credited with inventing the detective fiction genre and was one of America's first successful short story practitioners.

Question 3

Who should read The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe?

Accepted Answer

The Tell-Tale Heart is ideal for readers who enjoy psychological horror, Gothic fiction, and explorations of madness and guilt. Students of American literature will appreciate its status as a classic, while fans of crime narratives and unreliable narrators will find the story compelling. Anyone interested in Poe's mastery of suspense and the human psyche should read this influential tale.

Question 4

Is The Tell-Tale Heart worth reading?

Accepted Answer

The Tell-Tale Heart is absolutely worth reading as one of Edgar Allan Poe's best-known short stories and a classic of Gothic fiction. Despite its brevity, the story delivers a profound psychological investigation of guilt, paranoia, and the fragile boundary between sanity and madness. Its influence on mystery, horror, and psychological literature makes it essential reading for understanding American literary history.

Question 5

What is the main theme of The Tell-Tale Heart?

Accepted Answer

The central theme of The Tell-Tale Heart is the psychological destruction caused by guilt and conscience. Poe explores how the human mind cannot escape moral reckoning after committing heinous acts, as the narrator's meticulous planning proves futile against overwhelming internal torment. The story also examines the paradox of harming those we claim to love and the ambiguous line between sanity and madness.

Question 6

Why does the narrator kill the old man in The Tell-Tale Heart?

Accepted Answer

The narrator murders the old man solely because of his pale blue "vulture eye," which the narrator finds deeply disturbing and claims causes extreme distress. Importantly, the narrator explicitly denies hatred, resentment, or greed as motives, insisting they loved the old man who "never wronged" them. This irrational motivation—killing someone over a physical feature while claiming affection—highlights the narrator's unreliable mental state and the story's psychological horror.

Question 7

What does the beating heart symbolize in The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe?

Accepted Answer

The beating heart in The Tell-Tale Heart symbolizes the narrator's inescapable guilt and conscience. The sound, which the narrator interprets as the dead man's heart, represents the psychological torment that follows wrongdoing—an internal "drum" of moral reckoning that cannot be silenced. Whether the heartbeat is real or hallucinatory remains ambiguous, underscoring Poe's exploration of how the mind constructs its own prisons when burdened by crime.

Question 8

How does The Tell-Tale Heart end?

Accepted Answer

The Tell-Tale Heart ends with the narrator's frenzied confession to police after becoming convinced they can hear the old man's beating heart beneath the floorboards. During what seemed like a successful deception, the narrator grows increasingly agitated by the auditory hallucination, ultimately shrieking and admitting to the murder. This climax demonstrates that conscience triumphs over cunning, as the narrator's "perfect crime" is undone by psychological collapse rather than detective work.

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The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe Summary

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おすすめの本

重要なポイント

The Whispers Within: A Mind Unraveling

The Methodical Madness

The Architecture of Guilt

Time Distorted by Madness

The Heartbeat of Conscience

The Confession's Cruel Irony

The Enduring Echo

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