The Tell-Tale Heart: A Summary

The narrator, whose name we do not know, begins the story by forcefully denying claims of his insanity by an unseen questioner. He attempts to prove that he is sane by relating the series of events which have led him to this point. According to him for seven nights he attempted to kill his elderly male companion, whom he loved. The narrator says that his motivation is his companion's deformed pale blue eye, which he believes is tormenting him.

On the eighth night he manages to find his companion in a deep sleep and proceeds inside his bedroom. However, before he can get too far, his companion suddenly snaps awake and is immediately suspicious that there is someone in his room. For a time, the narrator hides in the darkness, waiting for his companion to go back to sleep. During this time, his companion's heartbeat rapidly increases and the narrator becomes scared that a neighbor may hear the sounds. He decides to kill him, suffocating his companion with his mattress. He then dismembers the corpse and places it under the floorboards. After he has finished his gruesome deed, a squadron of police officers knocks on the front door.

The narrator, happy that his companion is dead and well hidden, answers and invites the officers in. He learns that a neighbor heard a shriek coming from the house during the night and that the officers have come to investigate. The narrator tells them that it was him but asks that they search the premises nonetheless. After they have finished, he asks that they sit down and relax. They happily do and before long the narrator hears a sound which he believes is his companion's heart still beating. Terrified, and believing that the officers hear it as well and have guessed him a murderer, he rips up the floorboards and admits to killing his companion.