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The Tell-Tale Heart
A1 · English · Free ?
An unnamed narrator tries to prove his sanity by describing the patience and precision with which he planned a killing. Obsessed with an old man’s eye, he watches his victim at night before attacking and concealing the body. When police officers arrive, confidence gives way to an increasingly intolerable sound. The account exposes the tension between self-justification and guilt, leaving the reader to assess a voice that undermines its own claims. Poe concentrates the story’s terror in perception, rhythm and the narrator’s desperate need to be believed.
This edition contains the simplified and original English texts, with an English word glossary. No cultural glossary or translations are included.
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Yes, I am nervous. I was very nervous then, and I am nervous now. But why do you say I am mad?
I can hear better than other people. I hear things far away and things very near. Listen to my story. I can tell it quietly. Then you will understand.
I loved the old man. He never hurt me. I did not want his money. But there was his eye.
One eye was pale blue, with something like a thin white cover over it. It reminded me of the eye of a terrible bird. Whenever he looked at me, I became cold inside.
I could not forget that eye. I thought about it during the day and in the night. At last, I decided to kill the old man. Then the eye could never look at me again.
You think this makes me mad. But you should have seen how carefully I worked. During the week before I killed him, I was kinder than ever.
Every night, at midnight, I opened his bedroom door. I opened it very slowly. There was no light from the little lamp in my hand. I kept its cover closed.
Then I moved my head into the room. It took me a long time. I did not want to wake him.
When my head was inside the door, I opened the lamp just a little. A thin line of light fell on the eye.