Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a gripping and terrifying short story that explores the darkest corners of the human psyche. The story is told from the perspective of an unidentified narrator who describes a graphic murder story while maintaining their sanity. An air of tension and suspense is created by the narrator’s detailed portrayal of his spiral into lunacy, which is driven by a fixation with the old man’s vulture-like stare. Poe deftly examines issues of paranoia, guilt, and the blurry boundary between sanity and insanity.
As a classic of Gothic literature, the tale’s psychological intensity and the unrelenting pounding of the “tell-tale heart” leave readers disturbed by the evil that resides within the human soul and lingering feelings of discomfort.