37 pages • 1 hour read
Edgar Allan PoeThe Tell-Tale Heart
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1843A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Background
Literary Context: Gothic Literature
Poe’s work is often regarded as emblematic of the Gothic genre, which appeared in English literature in the late 18th century as part of the Romantic reaction against the rational and scientific focus of the Enlightenment. The first coherent example of this style is considered to be Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, which combines many of the elements associated with the Gothic: a sense of terror and wonder; a dark, remote location; a vulnerable heroine; and an atmosphere of death and decay. All these characteristics are meant to express inherent irrational human impulses and to inspire readers to consider that something might exist beyond the physical and rational. Long before the birth of psychoanalysis, Romantic art, especially Gothic art, explored the subconscious, hidden, and taboo desires that define human behavior.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” is an excellent illustration of Gothic literature, as the story’s tragic conclusion arises from two irreconcilable emotions felt by the narrator: self-professed love for the old man and the desire to kill him. These two emotions could be categorized as the conscious, or rational, side of the protagonist’s psyche and as the unconscious, or irrational, one. Furthermore, the emphasis on the narrator’s irrational motivations for murder highlights the shortcomings of the Enlightenment conception of the human mind. The murderer follows their own logic, demonstrating patience and forethought, but their actions show that logic is not the same as rationality, which itself is not a guarantee of morality.
Additionally, the story includes such Gothic elements as the narrator’s irrational sense of terror at night and seemingly supernatural elements, such as the old man’s eye, the beating heart, and the narrator’s claim to hear things from beyond the grave. However, it remains unclear whether these details are truly otherworldly or if the narrator is simply delusional.
Authorial Context: Edgar Allan Poe
Poe’s biography is an important framework for his literary oeuvre. Born in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best-known American authors. After his father abandoned the family and his mother died a year later, the young Poe was taken in by a Richmond merchant named John Allan. However, despite being given the middle name “Allan,” the writer was never formally adopted by his foster family. Poe’s relationship with his guardian grew strained due to the young man’s gambling debts. After Poe was expelled from the University of Virginia and the United States Military Academy, John Allan refused to support him any longer, and eventually disowned him in 1830.
Poe moved to Boston, where he published stories, poems, and critical articles. He dedicated himself to writing and often moved back and forth between Baltimore, New York, and Boston, serving as editor of various journals and magazines. His employment was frequently interrupted due to his drinking. In 1836 he married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm, who died 11 years later from consumption. After his wife’s death, Poe again succumbed to drinking and unsuccessfully attempted to initiate romantic relationships with other women. He died from unknown causes in 1849 in Baltimore. The mystery surrounding his demise has become part of the legend of Poe’s life and a real-life Gothic aspect of his biography.
Although the writer gained some acclaim during his lifetime, he gained posthumous international renown through his influence on the French symbolist movement. Both Poe’s fiction and critical essays had a lasting impact on poets and artists like Charles Baudelaire, who translated Poe’s work into French, as well as Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, and Gustave Doré. Because of the French symbolist influence, Poe has become one of the most translated and recognizable 19th-century American writers.
Poe’s troubled relationship with John Allan could be seen as an inspiration for the “The Tell-Tale Heart,” in which the narrator loves a father figure but also wishes to harm him. In such a biographical reading, the short story could be interpreted as a Gothic retelling of the patricide myth/impulse long-established in Greek and Roman mythology and literature. Additionally, Poe’s experience with loss and death can explain his interest in the Gothic and macabre. Most of his works deal, in one way or another, with death, madness, illness, and the otherworldly.
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