The Tell-Tale Heart

Yes, nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been, and still am. But why do you say that I am mad? My disease only made my senses stronger. It didn’t destroy them. Above all my senses, my sense of hearing was the best. I heard all things in heaven and in the earth. I heard many things below the earth. So how can you say that I am mad? Stop and listen to me, and see how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

It’s impossible to say how the idea first entered my brain. But once I got the idea, it haunted me day and night. There was really no reason for me to come up with the idea because I loved the old man. He had never done anything wrong to me. He had never insulted me. I didn’t want his money or gold. I think it was – his eye! Yes, it was his eye. One of his eyes looked like a vulture’s eye – pale blue and covered with a film. Whenever it looked at me, my blood ran cold. It gave me chills. So gradually, very gradually, I decided to take the life of the old man and get rid of the eye forever.

Now here is my point. You think I’m mad. Madmen are stupid. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how smart I was – how careful and cautious I planned it out! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.

Every night, around midnight, I turned the latch of his door, and opened it – oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening big enough for me to stick in my head, I put in the dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light would shine out. Then I would stick in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how carefully I moved my head in! I moved it slowly – very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man’s sleep. It took me an entire hour to place my whole head in the opening, just far enough so that I could watch him as he lay sleeping in his bed. Ha! Would a madman have been this smart?

And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the hole in the lantern cautiously – oh so cautiously – carefully (because the hinges creaked). I opened it just so much that a single thin ray would fall upon his vulture eye. And I did this for seven long nights -- every night just at midnight. But I always found the eye was closed, so it was impossible for me to kill him because it wasn’t the old man whom I hated, but his Evil Eye.

And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into his room and spoke to him very friendly, asking how he had slept during the night. So you see, he would have had to been a very wise person to figure out that every night, just at midnight, I was watching him while he slept.

Upon the eighth night, I was more careful than usual as I opened his door. A watch’s minute hand moved faster than I did. Before that night, I had never felt so much power. My senses were very strong. I could hardly hold back my excitement, to think that there I was, opening his door, little by little, and he had no idea of my secret plan or thoughts. I almost laughed at the idea – and maybe, he heard me – because he moved on the bed suddenly, as if something scared him.

Now you may think I pulled back out of the door, but no. His room was solid black. It was thick with darkness because the shutters were tightly closed and locked for fear of robbers, so I knew that there was no way he could see me standing in his doorway. So I kept moving in through the door… slowly and steadily.

I had my entire head in, and was reaching for the lantern to open it when my thumb slipped and hit the metal latch, and the old man sprang up in his bed, crying out, “Who’s there?!”

I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move one muscle. I stood completely frozen. Yet, in the meantime, I never did hear him lay back down. Although I could not see him, I knew he was still sitting up in his bed listening (just like I have done many nights – listening to Death watching me through the walls).

Soon, I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of pure terror. It was not a groan of pain or sadness – oh no! It was the low, smothered sound that rises from the bottom of your soul when you are filled with fear. I knew that sound very well because many nights, right at midnight, when the rest of the world was sleeping, that feeling had filled my own soul and echoed inside my head. So I knew exactly what he was feeling. I knew it well, and I even felt sorry for him, although I laughed inside. I knew that he had been lying awake ever since that first slight noise that I had made an hour ago when he turned over in his bed. His fears had been growing stronger since then. He has probably been talking to himself, trying to calm himself down, but can’t. He’s probably been saying to himself, “It’s nothing but the wind in the chimney,” or “It’s just a cricket that has made a single chirp.” Yes, he has been trying to comfort himself with these thoughts, but it’s no good. No good, because he knows DEATH is coming for him. The old man feels Death’s shadow, even though he can’t see me or hear me standing here, he feels a presence in the room.

When I waited a long time, very patiently, still never hearing him lie down, I decided to open a little – a very, very little crack in the lantern’s door. So I opened it – you can’t imagine how carefully… carefully – until, at last, a single ray of light like the thread of a spider web, shot out from the lantern and landed right on his vulture eye!

It was open – wide, wide open – and I grew furious as I looked at it. I saw it perfectly – all dull blue, with a nasty film over it that chilled my bones. I couldn’t see anything else except the eye. I couldn’t see his face or any other part of his body. I had directed the ray of light exactly on the Evil Eye!

And haven’t I told you that what you think is madness is really mistaken for having really strong senses? Now, I’m telling you that I heard in my ears a low, dull, quick sound – a sound a watch makes when it’s covered in cotton. I knew that sound well. It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It made me even more furious – the way a drum beat moves a soldier.

But I remained still. I hardly breathed. I didn’t move the lantern at all. I tried to see how long I could keep the ray of light on his eye. The entire time, I could hear the old man’s heart beating louder. It grew faster and faster, and louder and louder every second! The old man must have been terrified! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! Do you hear what I’m saying? I’ve told you that I’m nervous, and now in the middle of the night, in the silence of that old house, the noise of his heartbeat filled me with an uncontrollable terror. Yet, for several minutes longer I still didn’t move. But his heart kept beating louder, and louder! I thought his heart was going to explode!
And now, I thought of something else – what if a neighbor would hear the heartbeat? The old man’s time to die had come. With a loud yell, I threw the lantern and burst into his room.
He shrieked – once… only once.

After that, I dragged him to the floor and pulled the mattress on top of him. I then smiled because I had done it. But still, for many minutes, his heart beat on with a muffled sound. Still, this didn’t bother me, because no one else could hear it. At last, it stopped. The old man was dead. I placed my hand on his heard and held it there many minutes. There was nothing. He was stone dead. His eye wouldn’t bother me any more.

If you still think I’m mad, you won’t think so after I describe how I hid the body. The night went on, and I worked quickly and in silence. First of all, I cut up the corpse. I cut off the head, the arms, and the legs.

I then pulled up three planks from the floor of his bedroom and placed all the body parts inside. I then replaced the boards so cleverly that no human eye – not even his – could have noticed anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out – no stain of any kind – no blood spots. I had been far too careful for that. A tub had caught it all – ha ha!

When I had finished, it was 4:00 in the morning – still dark as midnight. As the clock struck the hour, I heard a knocking at the door. I went down to open it without any worries. What did I have to be afraid of?
Three men entered who introduced themselves as police officers. A scream had been heard by a neighbor during the night, suspicious that something bad had happened. So the neighbor called the police and now they wanted to search the house.

I smiled – for what did I have to be afraid of? I welcomed them inside. The shriek, I told them, was my own in a dream. I told them that the old man was out of the country. I took the police all over the house. I told them to search -- search well. Finally, I led them to his bedroom. I showed them his treasures – that they were still there. Then, in a feeling of pride and confidence, I brought in chairs and told the police to sit here and rest, while I myself – trying to show off – placed my own seat upon the very spot where I had buried the corpse of my victim.
The officers were satisfied. My calm behavior had convinced them that nothing was wrong. I was completely relaxed. They sat and I talked cheerfully.

But before long, I felt myself getting pale. I wished they would leave. My head started to ache, and I heard a ringing sound in my ears. But still they sat and talked. The ringing sound grew louder. It continued, and grew even louder. I talked more to get rid of the sound, but it continued – until at last, I realized that the noise was NOT in my ears….

Now, I grew very pale. But I still talked faster and with a higher voice. Yet the sound increased. What could I do? The sound grew louder. It was a low, dull, quick sound –like the sound a watch makes when it’s covered in cotton. I gasped for breath.

But the officers didn’t hear it. I talked faster and faster – but the noise still increased. I stood up and talked with a high voice and swung my arms and hands, but the noise still increased. Oh, why wouldn’t they leave? I paced the floor, back and forth, but the noise still increased! Oh, God! What could I do? I foamed, I raved, I swore! I swung the chair that I was sitting in and hit it on the floorboards, but the noise grew louder and continually increased! It grew louder – louder – louder! And still the men sat and talked and smiled. Was it possible that they didn’t hear it? Almighty God! No, no! I think they hear it! I think they suspect me! I think they know! I bet they are making fun of me in my horror!

Anything is better than this agony! Anything is better than this torment! I can’t stand their smiles any more! I felt that if I didn’t scream I would die!

And now, again – the sound – louder! Louder! Louder! LOUDER!

“Officers!” I shrieked. “Don’t sit there smiling any more! I admit the deed! Tear up the floor! Here – here – it is the beating of his hideous heart!”

Back to LINKS