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"Will you say that I am mad?"
What is madness? In this beloved story, Poe invites readers to question their own ideas of when exactly we cross the line. Rae Wilson shares her observations on Poe's words and invites you to question the unimaginable.
Music by:
Sneaky Snitch by Kevin MacLeod http://incompetech.com
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Monster Heat - by David Fesliyan
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★In the oral tradition of storytelling, Echoes in the Dark, delivers classic works of gothic fiction weekly. Hosted and curated by Ms. Rae (an award-winning educator, actor, and literary analyst) the collection of stories spans popular works by authors like Edgar Allan Poe as well as lesser known works by authors such as Guy de Maupassant. Each story is followed by a literary analysis.
If you’re looking to enjoy more classic literature, struggle to find the time to read, hate reading, or just love listening to stories, then this podcast is for you.
A Note on Content: While these stories are generally appropriate for listeners aged 12 and up, classic Gothic literature frequently explores themes of murder, romantic affairs, and "tortured souls." Stories are performed exactly as written in their original historical context.
If you are looking to learn more ways to boost your literary analysis visit:
Speaker: Welcome to Echoes in the
Dark, a podcast dedicated to the
oral tradition of storytelling.
Speaker: If you're looking to enjoy
more classic literature, struggle to
find the time to read, hate
Speaker: reading, or just love
listening to stories, then this
podcast is for you.
Speaker: At the end of each story,
I'll share my analysis on the
story's deeper meanings.
Speaker: Today's Twisted Tale is The
Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe,
written in 1843, because
Speaker: this story invites us as
the reader to do some serious
thinking about human behavior.
Speaker: It is my intent to read
this with less dramatic flair, so as
not to sway
Speaker: your opinion of the story
in one direction or the other.
Speaker: However, keep listening to
the end of this tale so that we can
discuss the good,
Speaker: the bad, and the ugly of
what is happening here.
Speaker: Allan Poe.
Speaker: It's true, yes, I have been
ill, very ill, but why do you say
that I
Speaker: have lost control of my
mind?
Speaker: Why do you say that I am
mad?
Speaker: Can you not see that I have
full control of my mind?
Speaker: Is it not clear that I am
not mad?
Speaker: Indeed, the illness only
made my mind, my feelings, my senses
stronger, more powerful.
Speaker: My sense of hearing
especially became more powerful.
Speaker: I could hit sounds I had
never heard before.
Speaker: I heard sounds from heaven,
and I heard sounds from hell.
Speaker: Listen, listen, and I will
tell you how it happened.
Speaker: You will see, you will hear
how healthy my mind is.
Speaker: It is impossible to say how
the idea first entered my head.
Speaker: There was no reason for
what I did.
Speaker: I did not hate the old man.
Speaker: I loved him.
Speaker: He had never hurt me.
Speaker: I did not want his money.
Speaker: I think it was his eye.
Speaker: His eye was like the eye of
a vulture, the eye of one of those
terrible
Speaker: birds that watch and wait
while an animal dies and then fall
upon the dead body
Speaker: and pull it to pieces to
eat it.
Speaker: When the old man looked at
me with his vulture eye, a cold
feeling went up
Speaker: and down my back.
Speaker: Even my blood became cold.
Speaker: And so I finally decided I
had to kill the old man and close
that eye
Speaker: forever.
Speaker: So you think that I am mad?
Speaker: A madman cannot plan.
Speaker: But you should see me.
Speaker: During all of that week, I
was as friendly to the old man as I
could
Speaker: be and warm and loving.
Speaker: Every night about 12
o'clock, I slowly opened his door.
Speaker: And when the door was open
wide enough, I put my hand in and
then my
Speaker: head.
Speaker: In my hand, I held a light
covered with a cloth so that no
light showed.
Speaker: And I stood there quietly.
Speaker: Then carefully, I lifted
the cloth just a little so that a
single thin small light
Speaker: fell across that eye.
Speaker: For seven nights, I did
this.
Speaker: Seven long nights.
Speaker: Every night at midnight.
Speaker: Always, the eye was closed.
Speaker: So it was impossible for me
to do the work.
Speaker: For it was not the old man
I felt I had to kill.
Speaker: It was the eye.
Speaker: His evil eye.
Speaker: And every morning, I went
to his room.
Speaker: And with a warm, friendly
voice, I asked him how he had slept.
Speaker: He could not guess that
every night, just at 12, I looked in
at him as
Speaker: he slept.
Speaker: The eighth night, I was
more than usually careful as I
opened the door.
Speaker: The hands of a clock moved
more quickly than did my hand.
Speaker: Never before had I felt so
strongly my own power.
Speaker: I was now sure of success.
Speaker: The old man was lying
there, not dreaming that I was at
his door.
Speaker: Suddenly, he moved in his
bed.
Speaker: You may think I became
afraid, but no.
Speaker: The darkness in his room
was thick and black.
Speaker: I knew he could not see the
opening of the door.
Speaker: I continued to push the
door slowly, softly.
Speaker: I put in my head.
Speaker: I put in my hand with that
cover light.
Speaker: Suddenly, the old man sat
straight up in bed and cried, who's
there?
Speaker: I stood quite still.
Speaker: For a whole hour, I did not
move.
Speaker: Nor did I hear him again
lie down in his bed.
Speaker: He just sat there,
listening.
Speaker: Then, I heard a sound, a
low cry of fear, which escaped from
the old man.
Speaker: Now, I knew that he was
sitting up in his bed, filled with
fear.
Speaker: I knew that he knew that I
was there.
Speaker: He did not see me there.
Speaker: He could not hear me there.
Speaker: He felt me there.
Speaker: Now, he knew that death was
here, standing by.
Speaker: Little by little, I lifted
the cloth until a small, small light
escaped from under it,
Speaker: to fall upon, to fall upon
that vulture eye.
Speaker: It was open, wide, wide
open, and my anger increased as it
looked straight at me.
Speaker: I could not see the old
man's face.
Speaker: Only that eye, that hard
blue eye, and the blue in my blood
became like ice.
Speaker: Have I not told you that my
hearing had become unusually strong?
Speaker: Now, I could hear a quick,
low, soft sound, like the sound of a
clock heard
Speaker: through a wall.
Speaker: It was the beating of the
old man's heart.
Speaker: I tried to stand quiet, but
the sound grew louder.
Speaker: The old man's fear must
have been great, indeed.
Speaker: And, as the sound grew
louder, my anger became greater and
more painful.
Speaker: But, it was more than
anger.
Speaker: In the quiet night, in the
dark, so loudly that I was sure
someone must hear,
Speaker: the time had come.
Speaker: I rushed into the room,
crying, die, die.
Speaker: The old man gave a loud cry
of fear as I fell upon him and held
Speaker: the bed covers tightly over
his head.
Speaker: Still, his heart was
beating, but I smiled as I felt that
success was near.
Speaker: For many minutes, that
heart continued to beat, but at
last, that beating stopped.
Speaker: The old man was dead.
Speaker: I took away the bed covers
and held my ear over his heart.
Speaker: There was no sound.
Speaker: Yes, he was dead.
Speaker: Dead as a stone.
Speaker: His eye would trouble me no
more.
Speaker: So, I'm mad, you say?
Speaker: You should have seen how
careful I was to put the body where
no one could
Speaker: find it.
Speaker: First, I cut off the head.
Speaker: Then, the arms and the
legs.
Speaker: I was careful not to let a
single drop of blood fall on the
floor.
Speaker: I pulled up three of the
boards that form the floor and put
the pieces of
Speaker: the body there.
Speaker: Then, I put the boards down
again, carefully, so carefully that
no human eye could see
Speaker: that they had been moved.
Speaker: As I finished this work, I
heard that someone was at the door.
Speaker: It was now four o'clock in
the morning, but still dark.
Speaker: I had no fear, however, as
I went down to open the door.
Speaker: Three men were at the door,
three officers of the police.
Speaker: One of the neighbors had
heard the old man's cry and had
called the police.
Speaker: These three had come to ask
questions and to search the house.
Speaker: I asked the policemen to
come in.
Speaker: The cry, I said, was my
own, but a dream.
Speaker: The old man, I said, was
the way he had gone to visit a
friend in
Speaker: the country.
Speaker: I took them through the
whole house, telling them to search
it all, to search well.
Speaker: I led them, finally, into
the old man's bedroom.
Speaker: As if playing a game with
them, I asked them to sit down and
talk for
Speaker: a while.
Speaker: My easy, quiet manner made
the policemen believe my story.
Speaker: So, they sat, talking with
me in a friendly way, but although I
answered them in
Speaker: the same way, I soon wished
that they would go.
Speaker: My head hurt, and there was
a strange sound in my ears.
Speaker: I talked more and faster.
Speaker: The sound became clearer,
and still they sat and talked.
Speaker: Suddenly, I knew that the
sound was not in my ears.
Speaker: It was not just inside my
head.
Speaker: At that moment, I must have
become quite white.
Speaker: I talked faster and louder,
and the sound, too, became louder.
Speaker: It was a quick, low, soft
sound, like the sound of a clock
heard through a
Speaker: wall.
Speaker: A sound I knew well.
Speaker: Louder it became, and
louder.
Speaker: Why did the men not go?
Speaker: Louder and louder.
Speaker: I stood up and quickly
walked around the room.
Speaker: I pushed my chair across
the floor to make more noise to
cover the terrible sound.
Speaker: I talked even louder, and
still the men sat and talked and
smiled.
Speaker: Was it possible they could
not hear?
Speaker: They heard.
Speaker: I was certain of it.
Speaker: They knew.
Speaker: Now, it was they who were
playing a game with me.
Speaker: I was suffering more than I
could bear from their smiles and
from that sound.
Speaker: Louder, louder, louder.
Speaker: Suddenly, I could bear it
no longer.
Speaker: I pointed at the boards and
cried, Yes!
Speaker: Yes, I killed him!
Speaker: Pull up the boards and you
shall see I killed him.
Speaker: But why does his heart not
stop beating?
Speaker: Why does it not stop?
Speaker: Why, oh why, indeed, does
Poe give us this wonderful tale that
leaves us going, He
Speaker: did what?
Speaker: Now, I love using this
story to introduce students to Edgar
Allan Poe.
Speaker: When I was in school, I
believe my first introduction was
the poem, The Raven, and
Speaker: it was dark and creepy.
Speaker: I know I loved it.
Speaker: What was that about?
Speaker: But this story, this story
leaves students instantly attached,
wanting to know, He did what?
Speaker: And after reading this
story, I always have a little
discussion with my students.
Speaker: So, what do you think?
Speaker: Is the narrator insane?
Speaker: And generally, the answer
is always, Yes, of course he is.
Speaker: He killed a man.
Speaker: How could you even ask
that?
Speaker: And yet, I'm gonna invite
you to dig a little deeper because
it's not as black
Speaker: and white as one might
think.
Speaker: I believe Poe has done a
wonderful job of making the reader
question what is right,
Speaker: what is wrong, what is
normal, what is sanity, and what is
insanity.
Speaker: Okay, so to argue that the
narrator, who has stated up front
that he may have
Speaker: been ill, but he is not
mad.
Speaker: Well, let's go ahead and
take him at his word.
Speaker: Let's say that he's not
mad.
Speaker: One of the reasons the
narrator says he is not mad, he
offers us proof as
Speaker: his ability to carefully
plan out his actions.
Speaker: And in the United States,
when you look at a court of law, it
is often
Speaker: decided that someone who
can willingly and knowingly plan to
commit a violent act is not
Speaker: criminally insane.
Speaker: If you know it is wrong,
and you do it anyway, then this is
not a
Speaker: temporary lapse in
judgment.
Speaker: This is someone who's just
doing wrong.
Speaker: Think of it this way.
Speaker: Maybe a parent will ask a
child to do their homework before
playing video games, and
Speaker: that child plays video
games.
Speaker: Parents says, hey, did you
do your homework?
Speaker: The child says, yes, of
course I did.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Knowing full well that they
did not.
Speaker: Now the child has lied, and
yet, does that make the child a bad
person, even
Speaker: though they knowingly lied
to their parent?
Speaker: Think of the employee who
really just wants to get out of work
a little early,
Speaker: so they can make it to
their train, or go to an interview
at another company.
Speaker: And so they have a
colleague clock out for them, or
maybe they're not in a
Speaker: system where they have to
clock out, but they leave early.
Speaker: And when asked, hey, I was
looking for you the other day.
Speaker: I couldn't find you.
Speaker: I want to go over some
material with you.
Speaker: The person will rarely say,
oh, well, you couldn't find me
because I left early.
Speaker: They'll probably just say,
oh, I must have just missed you.
Speaker: I was in a meeting with
so-and -so, and I left at this later
time.
Speaker: So people tell lies all the
time without the intention of being
malicious and hurting someone
Speaker: else.
Speaker: Now you might be saying,
there's a big difference between
lying about leaving work earlier,
lying
Speaker: about doing your homework,
and killing someone.
Speaker: And yet, my point is, both
actions take planning, intention,
regardless of whether or not you
Speaker: agree with the person's
purpose.
Speaker: A lie is a lie, and a
murder is a murder.
Speaker: We could also look at the
fact that the narrator planned these
actions over a period
Speaker: of time.
Speaker: So for a full week, night
after night, he went into this room
with the intention
Speaker: of extinguishing the eye,
just waiting for his opportunity.
Speaker: He didn't go in every night
just to make sure the old man was
sleeping okay.
Speaker: He didn't go in every night
with hesitation, maybe I will, maybe
I won't.
Speaker: The moment that I opened,
he acted.
Speaker: Another area that I like to
look at is his behavior.
Speaker: Once the old man is dead,
and he has invited the policeman in,
our narrator does
Speaker: not have a moment of
remorse or go back to reasonable
thinking.
Speaker: He plays a little game with
the police.
Speaker: Well, come on in, search
the place.
Speaker: He is actually enjoying
proving to the cops that he is
smart.
Speaker: He's almost playing a game
of cat and mouse, him being the cat,
batting his prey
Speaker: around, with them not
knowing that beneath the
floorboards, there's a dead man.
Speaker: Yes, the narrator could
have gotten a game with this murder.
Speaker: If he had just let the
police come in, shown around, and
said goodbye, then that
Speaker: would have been it.
Speaker: The police would have left,
he could have left town, and it
would be quite some
Speaker: time before anyone realized
that the old man was dead, let alone
being able to find
Speaker: the old man's body.
Speaker: He would have been long
gone, far out of town, but instead,
he gives himself up.
Speaker: And why?
Speaker: That sound, that horrible
sound that's been eating at him.
Speaker: Was it the sound of a
clock?
Speaker: The sound of a dead man's
heart?
Speaker: Or the sound of his own
guilt?
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: You know, when this story
was written, there was no social
media or TV.
Speaker: People turned to books for
entertainment, and it was not
uncommon for someone to be in
Speaker: a job they did not love.
Speaker: After all, the story was
written during the Industrial
Revolution, and you're in a job you
Speaker: don't love.
Speaker: Maybe you find yourself
working for someone who was very
wealthy, and you are less than
Speaker: wealthy, but you do your
job.
Speaker: And sometimes you wish,
man, I wish things were different.
Speaker: I wish I had more money, or
I wish I didn't have to work for
this
Speaker: person.
Speaker: And the narrator does say,
I didn't want his wealth.
Speaker: I even loved him.
Speaker: Yet, it is not uncommon for
even the child to think to
themselves, oh, I hate
Speaker: that parent.
Speaker: Or those oh-so-unfortunate
words.
Speaker: I wish they were dead,
right?
Speaker: This sudden burst of just
wanting things to be different, not
really wanting the other person
Speaker: actually dead, but just
wanting things to be different.
Speaker: And so Poe gives us the
story where we have an opportunity
to see, well, what
Speaker: if things were different?
Speaker: What if that thing that
bothered you, the thing that annoyed
you greatly, was no longer
Speaker: in your life by your own
doing?
Speaker: How would you feel?
Speaker: Would you feel relieved
that it's no longer there, annoying
you, restricting you?
Speaker: Or would you feel guilty
for removing this, knowing that
you're removing whatever it is that
Speaker: was bothering you, may have
negatively impacted someone else.
Speaker: Okay, so we won't say that
a parent has died, or that the mean
boss has
Speaker: died, but what if the mean
boss is suddenly fired, or stricken
ill, or maybe the
Speaker: mean boss loses that
company, and you found yourself
going, wow, I hated working there,
and
Speaker: now it's gone.
Speaker: And is my life any better,
knowing that that mean boss is now
without a job,
Speaker: or suffering?
Speaker: Is my life better, or do I
feel some guilt on my part in the
whole
Speaker: process?
Speaker: My wishing that the company
would fail, that they would no
longer be in their position
Speaker: of power.
Speaker: Okay, so we have looked at
the world from the narrator's view,
as if, hey, you're
Speaker: not mad, you have simply
done what millions of people
throughout the world have wanted to
Speaker: do, and you're just not a
nice person.
Speaker: But now let's look at
things as if we are not taking the
narrator by his
Speaker: word, and instead we focus
on his initial comments of being
ill, very ill.
Speaker: And Poe gives us several
indications that maybe the narrator
is insane.
Speaker: After all, he mentions
hearing sounds from heaven and hell.
Speaker: Is this literal?
Speaker: Is he really hearing the
devil talk to him, or was that just
his subconscious talking
Speaker: to him?
Speaker: Lots of times in TV shows,
they depict the little angel on the
shoulder, the little
Speaker: devil on the shoulder, the
part of your mind that says, do
good, and the other
Speaker: part of the mind that says,
go ahead, eat the chocolate cookie.
Speaker: After all, it's there.
Speaker: What's the harm?
Speaker: But the angel on your
shoulder says, don't eat the
chocolate cookie, you don't know
whose
Speaker: it is.
Speaker: And besides, you're trying
to be healthy, you don't need that
chocolate cookie.
Speaker: The internal struggle
between good and bad is always
there.
Speaker: So did our narrator really
hear screams from hell and heavenly
voices?
Speaker: Or did he just suffer the
same struggle that we always so many
people throughout the
Speaker: world do?
Speaker: And what about his fixation
on the eye?
Speaker: I mean, after all, our
narrator devoted a whole week, seven
days going into this room,
Speaker: carefully shielding the
light, carefully squeezing his body
into the room, and waiting and
watching.
Speaker: Now, though a court of law
would say, if you can plan it out,
and this
Speaker: was done with intention,
and therefore you were not insane,
you were just a bad person.
Speaker: However, maybe, maybe he is
insane.
Speaker: Because one thing that
someone who does not have control of
their mind would do is
Speaker: to become incredibly
fixated on something so small, like
an eye.
Speaker: This this small thing that
just bothered him to his core,
bothered him so much that
Speaker: the only way to solve the
problem was for him to take action
and get rid
Speaker: of it.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So maybe, maybe he is
insane.
Speaker: After all, he does hear the
sound of a clock.
Speaker: Or is it a beating heart?
Speaker: Well, if the man is dead,
how could he still be hearing that
beating heart?
Speaker: Is it his guilt?
Speaker: Or is it a figment of his
imagination?
Speaker: I think you can make a
strong argument for either case.
Speaker: But it's important to not
discount the fact that the narrator
does not feel he is
Speaker: insane, and goes to great
lengths to prove that he knew what
he was doing.
Speaker: So one thing that Poe
encourages the reader to think about
is, if you have bad
Speaker: thoughts, does that make
you a bad person?
Speaker: If you act upon your bad
thoughts, does this make you a bad
person?
Speaker: After all, everyone has
moments where they may not think the
nicest of nice things about
Speaker: others.
Speaker: And so are they mad?
Speaker: Or are they just human?
Speaker: I hope you enjoyed this
story.
Speaker: And do come back for
another Gothic Tale.