The Tell-Tale Heart - Plot Analysis

The exposition is found when the protagonist explains how each night he warily opened the door of his victim’s room and wedged his head in to see if the Evil Eye, the antagonist, was open. This is effective because of the way the author explains the caution the protagonist took to look at the eye. The protagonist is so careful to not make a sound that it takes him “an hour to place (his) whole head within the opening (of the door) so far that (he) could see (the old man) as he (laid) upon his bed.” The protagonist states that no madman would ever be careful enough to take and hour’s time to simply insert his head into his victim’s quarters henceforth proving his sanity.

The dramatic situation occurs on the eighth da

In The Tell-Tale Heart’s climax the protagonist hears the beating of the old man’s heart and even though he tries to drown out the sound by getting louder, the heart gets even louder. Convinced that the officers were able to hear the heart too, the protagonist yells out “Villains! Dissemble no more! I admit to the deed! – tear up the planks! – here, here! – it is the beating of his hideous heart!”

This simple fact that he protagonist was able to hear the “beating” heart of a dead man shows the reader that the man was indeed insane. There is foreshadowing in this story from the beginning where the protagonist states, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man.” The entire story is a flashback where a man is trying to prove his sanity, but in the end only proves his madness.

The crisis in this story comes at four o’clock in the morning when “there entered three men, who introduced themse

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