The Tell Tale Heart
- Leigh-Ann
- Nov 30
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 1
One of my favourite writers is Edgar Allan Poe. I love dark stories, and he is the OG of gothic horror. I especially love “The Tell Tale Heart”. It’s about a man who plots the death of an old wealthy man simply because he doesn’t like the old man much. The young man thought he could rid himself of the judgment he felt from the old man by killing him. He longed to free himself from the eye of judgment. He murders and burys the old man beneath the floor boards. Soon after the murder the man spirals into madness, the guilt of his actions become so loud the young man begins to think he can hear the old man’s heart beat beneath the floor boards.
My son and I read this story recently that was similar, it was about a man who plotted another man’s death because of a bad business deal, he strangled the man in his car then had to drag the body out to sea to dispose of it. He throws the man’s dead body on his back to walk it out to sea, and as he walks to the water the body goes into rigor mortis and the body clenches around his own. The man can’t get the body off of him once in the water and he drowns with the man he murdered clinging to him.
These stories are disturbing, but they are also human. They speak to that deep feeling of guilt we as humans experience when we harm others. We may try to tell ourselves our hurtful actions are justified in the moment, but if you’re a person with a conscience hurting others will keep you up at night. The choice to harm or wrong others won’t relieve pain but compound it.
When I was in grade one I stole erasers from a desk next to me in my class at school, and those erasers burned in my pocket, I was up night after night with the guilt. My mom found the erasers and asked me about them, and I immediately burst into tears, I had no idea why I took them but I knew it was wrong, they were all I thought of for days. I felt deeply guilty, I was relieved when I was finally able to tell the truth. The Tell Tale Heart reminds me of that awful feeling of knowing when you’ve done wrong, and how our conscience won’t give any relief from the guilt until we are honest about it.
The man in Poe’s story thinks he can hear the heart beat of the old man beneath the floor boards and it drives him mad. His conscience is so loud he can’t stand it.
I love stories where seemingly good or normal every day people do bad things thinking it will fix their momentary situation, only to find new problems.
I’ve watched a few series that follow a similar story line
I loved the recent depiction of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, I hope someone will take on something similar with Edgar Allan Poe’s writing.
If you’ve never read “The Tell Tale Heart”, you can find a free YouTube audio version linked below.
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