Understanding "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe 

Does anyone else think that the beating heart is his own? He feels his heart racing, but is so insane that he believes he is hearing it the same way he hears "all things in the heaven and in the Earth"? It's not that his senses are acute. It's that he's too nuts to comprehend his own heartbeat.

Great video. Just now I realized the homophone of "evil eye" is "evil I" as in evil self.

Poe puts it to a point to explain to the reader that crazy people don't know they're crazy; or rather they are in denial of their own insanity and therefore relish in their own insecurity in an attempt to disprove their own mental state.

WAY better than my teacher 😂

Projection. His own evil he sees in old man's eye. His own heart beat, he attributes to the old man. His own guilt and horror of what he had done, he places in the lap of the officers.

I think Poe's work was certainly laced with his own insecurity; his fear of descending into insanity; separation from his brother William and his sister Rosalie. And, of course, an intense fear of loss of anyone that he loved. I believe that the old man in The Tell-Tale Heart is Poe's own father, who left the family when he was young. His mother passed away with tuberculosis when he was just three years of age. Poe never knew his parents, and likely blamed them for deserting him at such a tender age. His own anger and irrational feelings for retribution for this unforgivable act, is played out in the murder of the old man. At last Poe has carried out his retribution against them both but still the guilt persists (the beating of the old man's heart). I believe that Poe hated himself for such pointless feelings against them, and in the story it is Poe's own guilt we see when the old man's murderer is full of remorse for his wicked deed. Will he ever be rid of it? Poe's work, as brilliant, as it is, is full of anger, uncertainty, and self pity. He never did lose his anger, drowning this part of his psyche with alcohol, and becoming a somewhat grumpy, tyrant critic of other writers. aias it any wonder that he earned the name of Tomahawk Man? His death will remain a mystery I guess, and that is befitting for a man who entertained his readers with tales of mystery and imagination.

The comments are priceless. Together with the lecture video, the analyses probe far corners and open new doors. I feel it's a dream , perhaps repeating, a harrowing distortion of reality. There is no murder. The eye for whatever reason triggers a disastrous trauma which escalates into psychological depths.

Again, I like your surveys of Poe. When I was in France as a young man, I heard a survey of this subject and the narrative that the heart beat was that of the killer. That when he had killed the "Old Man", the Old Man took control of his heart. And, on another hand, he had not fully thought through murder. The death of the Old Man was an amount of guilt he had not counted on trying to control. His confession, though unintended confession, was a product of guilt.

I love the way you explain this story. Your students are so lucky to have you! Thank you

I love how she's reading this so gently with a smile.. heh

Preceding this video I listened to Sir Christopher Lee's reading of The Tell-Tale Heart. There also happens to be a college drumline practicing down the street at the same time. I tell you there is nothing creepier than hearing the heartbeat the Narrator is describing in vivid detail, only to pause the video and still hear the steady beating continue. 😱

Another thought from a conversation with a fellow English teacher: Each of us lives his own reality. That is, our perspective tells us what things are and whether they matter. The opposite view: Reality is an objective fact and we each have blind spots in our understanding of it. This main character is trouble either way!

I love how you explain stories !

I totally agree with your view on the narrator's heart playing an important role. The relationship between rationality and heart was also an important topic for literature and art at the time period when this was written (Romantic period). Preceeding this periso was the year of enlightenmant and reason, and i think what Poe tries to highlight in this short-story is how a man cannot just follow his rationality, but needs his heart to guide him. A harmony between the heart and reason.

I'm doing the Tell-Tale heart for a competition and you really helped me with the character development!! Thank you!

Thank you VERY much. I am preparing for a debate to put the man on trial and you just saved my life for evidence.

Thank you so much! This was an excellent resource that I can provide to my struggling reader students who may have been confused about what truly happened in this story.

Really, thank you a lot for doing this video, you saved my life! I love how you told this story, it really flowed! You earned yourself a new subscriber!

This helps me so much. I'm doing a mock trial at school about this story to see if the man is sane or insane and this liked saved my life.

Great video, I watched a lot of "analysis" of this story and only yours was really complete and deep, also you explained it in a really clear way, loved it, thanks!

I understand this explanation more than our teacher... Thank you anyway for this awesome video.

thanks i am an grade 8 student we have this story its helped me alot to understand it and know the theme and because i have reading exam thanks alot : )

When I read this story in high school, oh, so many years ago, we learned the heart he heard beating was his own. Prof. Balcarcel's analysis, however, rests on the notion that the narrator has no heart, and that its absence undermines his rationality, his ability to affect the world in a positive way. What if we join the two analyses? The narrator suppresses his heart or misunderstands it, he doesn't allow it to influence his behavior, and therefore he conducts evil. In the end, though, the heart reimposes itself on his consciousness, restoring order. Emotion over reason, a very romantic conception! (google "Poe" and "Romanticism," it's revealing.)

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This story is very gothic. But I like the way that you gave a clear understanding of the story. It was really helpful to my current assignment. Continue posting any college student will find it useful. I'm happy and I am sure others will be too. Thank You!!! Job Well done.

Loved the way you launched straight into your review - told with great clarity.

Thank you soooo much!! You're helping me understand Poe's stories and saving my grade in Composition 2!!!

Thank you so much! I was really struggling with my homework on this story and you have really helped me to understand it better.

great vid! i have few ideas to add: 1. he was so perplexed by old man's eye probably he felt he's being watched ?? 2. he didnt specifiy his relationship to the old man to emphasize that he did not see the old man as person but just the owner of the Eye 3. structure wise, all the repetitive elaborate details put more thrill and i think it was giving him pleasure ("...i pities him, although i chuckled at a heart) as he stated on the eighth night :" i could scarcely contain my triumph" 4. also in the opening, he called the deed as 'disease', which may suggest that he was aware of his act to be wrong followed by his claim that it sharpened his senses. (a disease would normally deteriorate one's physical yet he claims otherwise) 5. THE STRUCTURE OF THE STORY is made up of contrasts. i love it.

this was the best review of an edgar allan poe work i've ever seen, thank you

You're actually really good! Thank you a lot for helping me to understand it even better 🌹

Thank you so much for this! You really helped me understand this story.

I'm in the USA. At the time,I was in the 6th grade. History. We had a free time. Our teacher,read us The Tell Tale Heart. I've never read a book(not for fun). I did read,George Lucas The Empire Strikes Back,for a class report,in another class. No, I have not read a book for fun. Nor did I like any author. So ,as the teacher was reading The Tell Tale Heart,I began to like it. Then I started liking the name,Edgar Allen Poe. In the story,I believe,the guy/murderer was the Butler of the old man. I know,Edgar Allen Poe,is an english author. Some English people or UK people,may or may not have maids/butlers. The butler,may have gotten tired of being a butler,so he killed the guy or the old man had gotten sick. The guy,didn't know,what to do,he killed the old guy.

Great analysis! I really understood what you were trying to explain and I agree with you. Thanks for posting this video and helping me understand the story better.

Thanks a lot for this video , I have an exam tomorrow in Edgar Alien Poe story "The Tell Tale Heart " .. I hope that I learned a lot from you more than what I learned from my professor .

So happy that I've found that! I'm kinda struggling of getting a good construct of this story, but seems like my problem is solved by now :)

Thank you so much!!! This will help me on my highschool finals tomorrow :) and I really understand it now and I have various things I can do with my paper now, thanks to you!!!

Incredible! I'm currently taking a Reading and Response to Literature course right now and your explanation really makes the reading assignments more exciting to read. Thank you!

Bob Dylan did a quote about this Poe's tale , on his last song recorded '' I Contain Multitudes'' . I'm sure that Dylan tell us how he feels old and how feels that the death is around him , but it's no fear at all , even he talks with ''the madame'' which is ''sitting on his knee'' face to face to avoid her that '' Keep your mouth away from me'' because he'll go ahead till '' there's no love left behind'' . I wish you could help me to understand why Dylan quotes Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart ... ''Got a tell-tale heart , like Mr. Poe / Got skeletons in the walls of people you know / I'll drink the truth and the things we said / I'll drink to the man that shares your bed / I paint landscapes and I paint nudes / I contain multitudes '' .

Without this video I couldn't do my homework thanks

This is great. Thank you for helping me understanding the story! ^-^

Love you're work helped me through multiple essays.

Just saw thi now and i would like to say, excellent work i appreciate it you helped me a lot.

Your amazing.!.!.! We are reading Shakespeare as "Hamlet"... You're so awesome.!.!.!

Love me some Poe. Had an English professor who loved Poe. Two things I recall her saying about Poe. 1. Poe's characters esp the ones narrating were typically unreliable. Just like this prof is saying. 2. Poe's male characters typically were with fair skinned and fair haired women but they always desired the dark hair Mediterranean woman they could never have

Thank you so much, this is my up coming report

This was terrific. Thank you 🙏

I have a final exam about this story and 5 others which i can also find it in your channel . Thank you so much for helpful videos. 🌹❤️

I really liked the video! I was thinking that the "Old Man" was maybe a father figure or some personal relationship that the narrator had. The person might of wronged him or caused him pain, and the eye represents the suffering that he might've went through. Therefore, the narrator wanted to get rid of the eye. I don't know if that's correct, but it is just my personal inference.

I really enjoyed this I'm 37, and I've read this story since I was in middle school, but never have. I thought about it in the ways that you have analyzed it.

Your analysis on The Tell Tale Heart has so improved my critics on the short story, with your explanation; i have been able to do my assignment successfully, but i would love to know if you could help me further by analyzing some other novels and poems. Thank you.

Thank you, this is a wonderful analysis

I believed The Narrator to be Death, at least the capable killer in us all. I think a connection and marriage is made between death's one true lust, drive or purpose and our own. This motivation, whatever it may be, is similar to our own undefined purpose; we live our lives in search of it nonetheless. I think the moral of the story is that our efforts require resources and exchange of everything and anything we deem necessary; we are even capable of exchanging sanity, liberty, and life to find the cure for the itch.

Thanks a lot for this good explanation

Thank you so much, for making this video.

Actually I always follow your explanation videos, your explanations are such amazing. 1. After I've been searching to know what is the source of the thought " Evil Eye" I figured out that " Belief in the Evil Eye crosses many cultures and is rooted in folklore". A person possessed of an Evil Eye is believed to have the ability to harm other people simply by looking at them in a particular way. Belief in the Evil Eye can be found in the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. 2. About the Old man, I think he was the "Master of the house", and the Narrator is the "Servant", because why does the old man have a treasure in the house? and why does the narrator know about the treasure and where it is? Maybe that's why he killed the old man, actually he is his master, and he is lonely, so maybe the narrator felt hatred toward him, and he was pretty sure that the master is so weak and lonely. So why not?

Thank you so much!

Thank you very much, ma'am. ♡

Thank you so much. I have really liked this. The last explanation from 8:48 min this is too good

really thank you for this amazing explanation .. 😍

Thanks for the built in citation. Very helpful

I've interpreted this to be something of an twisted Sherlock Holmes character, extremely rational, and obsessed with details. I agree that it's his own heart that he hears beating, but he is so fixated on the details of things it overwhelms him and drives him mad.

Thank you so much, the end of the video really helped :D

I believe that the narrator was hearing his own heartbeat, which rose with his nervousness. And out of his guilt, he believed that it was the old man's heartbeat.

Only person helping me pass my reading tests

Perfect analysis! :)

Oh thank you so much , so helpful video..really thanks 😊

thank you so much for your videos they are really helpful❤❤

You have a great amount of short stories that I am reading in my English class. I would love to hear you review “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

Thank you Miss 🙏🏼

I'm learning in therapy I had a parent growing up who taught me to completely repress my own feelings, boundaries, opinions, etc. I remember ten years ago, I had to read this story for the first time during an eleventh-grade English test. At the time I was really confused about whether the narrator was actually crazy, because I thought he might be, but he kept insisting he wasn't (if he said he wasn't, how did I know he wasn't right, and I was just being paranoid?) I'm now realizing these two things are connected LOL.

Thanks for your video I can study this literature with fun! Thank you~

Thank you very much then now I understand the whole story talking about.🤙😇

thank you so much!! I have to make a presentation for my english class and this gave me a lot of ideas =)

I think maybe he feels his heart beating and thinks is the old mans heart, and the evil he sees in the eye is his own evil. When he says villains to the police officers, we understand that this man is unable to admit his own acts and feelings, therefore he feels no guilt, he is insane

Interesting to hear your thoughts, especially towards the close of the video. I just read the story dramatically on my channel.

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7 years! ❤️

I always that the mad man heard his own heart beating. The first time he was hiding and getting nervous and excited and the second time was when he was scared of the police might somehow find out he killed the old man.

What was useful to have terms like death watch clearly explained to modern readers who are likely not familiar with the term along with a few other terms, most of this explanation of the story simply recounts the plot and the events and quote some word choices the narrator uses , most of this video repeats the plot elements that are obvious to the reader. Statement that the narrator uses his rationality for evil purposes seems to avoid the obvious issue that he is not as rational as he thinks, and what he calls his cunning or intelligence is simple common sense magnified to the lens of his madness. At the very end there's a brief mention that the author Poe has created a voice for the narrator, and I believe the simple statement should have been expanded as long and detailed study of how Poe created this voice, using the rising fall of focused attention, the connotation of world choices which come from a madman trying to pretend to himself in the world that he is not mad, and the manner that Poe creates the mood through the sound of the words particularly the sound of extended vowels. Por his written it length in reference to a different short story about how he focuses mood with a choice of words particularly the gloomy vowel sounds One of the essential elements of the story I believe is the way the narrator argues expecting to be believed to the reader or auditor, that the narrator himself is not mad. He gives examples of what he calls cunning which is actually simple everyday precautions that anyone might take or think of if they were about to commit a terrible crime, expensive reader to accept this is proof that he's not mad. The narrator does not seem to consider for a second that the reader will consider it an overwhelming sign of madness that the narrator feels he must kill the man entirely to take action against the evil eye that offends him. And of course the eyes of unhealthy and unpleasant appearance without any sign that it offers evil to the narrator or anyone else. My main impression is that this discussion spends far too much time going over the plant elements that are obvious to anyone who has read it and not enough analysis of the office techniques, it only touches slightly on how the mad man and expects to be believed contrary to common sense. I believe a central theme of the story--and I do not believe this is a subtle point- is that the man is mad and rationalizes his evil impulses and actions, yet he is a human being with a suppressed conscience and that conscience manifest itself through his madness, taking the form of the accusing heartbeat allegedly of the dying and dead man in spite of the impossibility of the dead man's heart beating. I presume that the murderer with his denied conscience not totally suppressed at all excites his heartbeat with his own guilt and later with the fear of discovery and it is his own heartbeat that he hears his own blood pounding in his ears that he interprets wrongly in his mad fantasy as the heartbeat of the man he is murdered.

I think Poe was also addressing the power of the conscience to convict. The Narrator certainly lacked an overt conscience like most sane people have, being so little bothered by murdering and dismembering a helpless old man. It seems though that his conscience won out in the end, tricking him into hearing the old man's heartbeat under the floor boards, so much so that he confessed all to the police when they had no suspicion of him whatsoever. The conscience can be a great ally and an horrific accuser and foe. I love me some Poe.

Have a essay on this story thank you now I understand.

Thank you so............much for doing this video. It helps :)

For starters, we know that the narrator has a social phobia - a social anxiety disorder - in which he exhibits a deep fear of negative evaluation. The old man's eye is a symbol for social judgement. The narrator can not stand to be judged. Secondly, the narrator appeals directly to the reader not to judge him as mad. He is afraid of being misjudged. Finally, our narrator gets hoisted on his own petard by his own persecutory delusion. He thinks the police are the villains (as is the old man's eye a villain) and he thinks the police are mocking him by not disclosing that they too hear the same sounds that the narrator does. Again, the perception (untrue) that the police are mocking him is another variant of the fear of negative evaluation.

This is a very good analysis. I think it's important to note that the narrator in this story actually displayed behaviors of a cerebral narcissist: The narrator brags about the crime, cover-up, and deception of the police, while ironically also using the reader to patch up his own fractured self-image as a "sane" and rational person. Contrary to some descriptions of the story, the narrator likely feels no guilt whatsoever about his crime. In his reality, right and wrong are based on what serves him and what doesn't. Thus, why he called both the eye "Evil" and the police "Villains". A murder admission is normally something a narcissistic mind wants no part of due to ego protection. But the narrator's delusion created a competing sense of unbearable humiliation. Again, it was his mind that caved, not his heart. Spot on assessment of the heart. It's either missing, or completely black. I know some people theorize about the relationship between the old man and the narrator, but I believe this story is largely about what a diseased mind can do to a person's moral compass (heart, conscience, soul, etc). Knowing what we know now about narcissistic and sociopathic behavior, this story masterfully described a very nuanced psychological problem that some believe is becoming more pervasive centuries after his original publication.

Thanks for your explanation teacher.i think that the guy hates himself , because he sees himself in the eye of the old ' I=eye ', and the more he kills the more he feels guilty and the hate increased , he will never accept himself.

during my last read-through I noticed that the one and only time the narrator adresses the old man as " the victim" is the exact moment he can start hearing the heart. as the eye is now dealt with, it " rehumanizes" the old man, victimizing him. and so our narrator is over-run with guilt.

Do you have any videos or recommendations reading/otherwise on the view that POE's later work was a sort of satire on the gothic (or romantic) style?

your analysis on The Tell Tale Heart has really helped me solving my assignment, but i would love to know if you can help in the analysis of a novel and poem ?

yeah

If the madman had deathwatch beetles keeping him awake, he may have been deprived of sleep. Maybe a lack of restful sleep resulted in his anxiety and drove him to madness and murder The beating of the heart was similar to the beating sound made by the beetles. Maybe this is a story about the possible consequences of sleep-depravation. Since he was unable to sleep peacefully and dream, his life became a nightmare..

This is a cool little story about a madman who thinks he is somehow above being mad. But in fact he is the epitome of madness. As he has developed a mental illness which severely distorts his perception of reality, and which ultimately causes him to commit murder. The murder of his very own uncle!( actually i'm not sure if it was his uncle or his lover). At any rate, in my opinion, this story is an account on the topic of mental illness and the fine line between genius and insanity. Similar to another story of his ,titled "Berenice" which is also about a highly intelligent man who develops a mental illness which drives him to commit murder( a great story btw with a cool twist at the end highly recommend it).

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Thank you for this I understand the Story well :D

Thank you!

thank you for preparing me for my test

Better than my teacher

u r amazing

keep on make these video lol they help out so much :)

I think you, you nail it, mate. Either of that, or I'm just biased.