Moralist Approach

"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe touches on many concepts and morals that are

relevant in today's society. The tale’s ambiguities offer a variety of interpretations. The most

obvious is that one cannot escape one's conscience, though the story should not be limited to one

simple moral. The narrator's undoing is not solely due to his conscience. The narrator's most

critical problem is hypocrisy. Humankind's self-righteous, persecuting nature, as well as

projections of crimes they have committed onto others, makes escaping one's own judgment

impossible. Suspense, organization, subjects (a mentally unstable man), and a fantastic

suspenseful plot with a powerful climax are all present. Although it is an excellent horror story

that everyone should read, some people question whether it is appropriate for our age group.

Young people, in my opinion, should be exposed to the thrill of horror. If you look past the

characters and their fulfilling desires that aren't always good, there are important morals in these

stories, and "The Tell-tale Heart" is a classic example. This text portrays the human experience

of a man who murdered an elderly man because he was afraid of his blue eye. He then

dismembers the body and hides the pieces beneath the bedroom floorboards. The narrator is at

ease as he speaks with the police until he hears a low thumping sound. He recognizes the low

sound as the old man's heart pounding beneath the floorboards. He panics, convinced that the

policemen have heard the sound and are aware of his guilt. He confesses to the crime and shrieks

at the men to rip up the floorboards, driven insane by the thought that they are mocking his

agony with their pleasant chatter. The moral of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is that you must be

prepared for the outcomes of your actions, and your conscience will eventually catch up with

you. Your conscience will eventually drive you insane to the point where you'll openly admit

what you did. Another lesson is that you can never get away with murder. It also indicates that
guilt will take over. The narrator attempts to blame his crime on the old man's eye in the story,

but a close reading exposes that he appears to enjoy stalking the old man and that the eye is an

excuse for a murder he intends to commit.