The Tell Tale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe

 

Pittsburg Public Theater Promotional Materials

The Story 

    The classic story written in first person follows Edgar Allen Poe's narrator as he tells us, the reader he is perfectly sane for killing his roommate, an elderly man with a bad eye, because the eye was evil. As the narrator shows us how carefully planned the murder was, we realize he almost got away with a gruesome crime, but alas, his victim cried out and the cops were alerted. The narrator attempts to placate the cops, by allowing a search of the house. The cops find nothing. But they continue to talk to him. As they talk, the narrator sinks into madness, until he believes he hears the beating of the victim's heart. He then confesses to the crime and show the cops where the body is buried. 

My Thoughts

I hated this story when I read it in school and I hate it today. Don't get me wrong, usually I'm in to gothic stuff, but Poe and I are not friends. August Dupin, and that series of stories are brilliant, clearly the beginning of mystery fiction, and yet...Poe and I are not friends. 

I find Poe, to be blunt about it, disturbing in all of the wrong ways. Of course he's evocative, that's what made him brilliant. But this story, I don't get the point. Is it to show the reader that even the insane believe they are sane? Is it to be metaphorical about sin, and the way truly bad acts play on our conscious? I don't know. 

Perhaps this confusion, or the very evocative nature of this story is what led it be challenged. I find it ironic that anyone would think this book is morally corrupt, but then want to withhold it from other people, as if that is not a moral corruption in and of itself. The only people who have any business limiting what other people can read are parents who are instilling values in their children. But once one is an adult, then they need the freedom to grow and to look at things and form their own opinion. And however objectionable you or I may find it, that is not for us to decide. Once person's outrage at Poe is a trespass into the sublime of another person. Their feelings and tastes are valid. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

This is a free Kindle edition that I own. There are several different ones available since the copyright on this story expired well over a century ago. As such, I did not need to use my library card. But don't worry, we will be back to that here soon. 

This Book                                     $0.00

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