The Macabre (P.H.S)

1- What is the story of tell-tale heart about?

The plot is about a man who wants to murder another man but doesn't want to be caught and punished. We have to assume that he intends to commit a perfect crime, even though the narrator does not say as much until after he commits it and hides the body under the floor boards. The narrator spends a great deal of time talking about how he looked in on the old man every night and focuses on details leading up to the actual murder, but the important feature is that he wants to get by with a murder. We will tend to suspect that he is a dependent on this older man and has something to gain from killing him. The victim is probably not his father, but he could be the narrator's uncle, and the narrator might stand to inherit the house and some money. Otherwise, it is hard to account for why he would be living with this older man. The narrator's real motive for committing the murder may have nothing to do with the old man's eye and everything to do with wanting his property. This is essentially a perfect-crime story in which the perpetrator nearly gets away with it except for one slip-up. In such stories the reader is in the perpetrator's point of view and therefore identifies with him to some extent. When the narrator breaks down and confesses, the reader also must share the feeling of being exposed and arrested. The fact that the narrator is insane is incidental. Even insane murderers usually have practical motivations.

2- Who wrote the tell-heart and invented the first macabre stories?
Edgar Allan Poe

3- What was the first P.H.S?
The Fall of the House of Usher


4- When was it first published?
In 1839

5- What other story types did the author also invent?
The Raven
Published 1845

The Masque of the Red Death
Published 1842

The Cask of Amontillado
Published 1847

The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Published 1841

Edgar Allan Poe