The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe - Mystery Bedtime Story For Adults

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:03]hello and welcome tonight I'm reading a classic short story by Edgar Alan Poe called The Telltale Heart the story is told by an unnamed narrator who Endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator sanity while simultaneously describing a murder the narrator committed so please get comfortable and that's Begin The Telltale Heart by Edgar Alan Poe true nervous very very dreadfully nervous I had been and am but why will you say that I am mad the disease has sharpened my senses not destroyed not DED them above all was the sense of hearing acute I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth I heard many things in Hell how then am I mad hearken and observe how healthily how calmly I can tell you the whole story it is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain but once conceived it haunted me day and night object there was none passion there was none I loved the old man he had never wronged me he had never given me insult for his gold I had no desire I think it was his eye yes it was this one of his eyes resembled that of a vulture a pale blue eye with a film over it whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold and so by degrees very gradually I made it my my mind to take the life of the older man and thus rid myself of the eye forever now this is the point you fancy me mad Mad Men know nothing but you should have seen me you should have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimilation I went to work I was never kinder to the old man that during the whole week before I killed him and every night about midnight I turned the Larch of his door and opened it oh so gently and then when I made an opening sufficient for my head I put in a dark l all closed closed so that no light Shone out and then I thrust in my head oh you would have loved to see how cunningly I thrust it in I moved it slowly very very slowly so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep it took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed H would a mad man have been so wise as this and then when my head was well in the room I endured the lanter cautiously oh so cautiously cautiously for the hinges create I and did it just so much that a single thin Ray Fell upon the Vulture Eye and this I did for seven long nights every night just at midnight but I found the eye always closed and so it was impossible to do the work for it was not the old man who vexed me but his evil eye and every morning when the day broke I went boldly into the chamber and spoke courageously to him calling him by name in a hearty tone and inquiring how he had passed the night so he see he would have been a very profound old man indeed to suspect that every night just at 12 I looked in upon him while he slept upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door a watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did did mine never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers of my own sagacity I could scarcely contain my feelings of Triumph to think that there I was opening the door little by little and he did not even to dream of my secret Deeds or thoughts I fairly chuckled at the idea and perhaps he heard me for he moved on the bed suddenly as if startled now you may think that I drew back but no his room was as a black as pitch with the thick Darkness for the shutters were clothes fastened through fear of robbers and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door and I kept pushing it on steadily steadily I had my head in and was about to open the lantern where my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening and the old man sprang up in the bed crying out who's there I kept quite still and said nothing for a whole hour I did not move a muscle and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down he was still sitting up in the bed listening just as I have done night after night hearkening to the the death watches in the wall presently I heard a slight groan and I knew it was the groan of mortal Terror it was not a groan of pain or of grief oh no it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the Soul when overcharged with awe I knew the sound well many a night just at midnight when all the world slept it had wound up from my own bosom deepening with its Dreadful Echo the Terrors that distracted me I say I knew it well I knew what the old man felt and pied him although I chuckled at heart I knew that he hadd been lying awake ever since the first slight noise when he had turned in the bed his fears had been ever since growing upon him he had been trying to fancy them causeless but could not he had been saying to himself it is nothing but the wind in the chimney it is only a mouse crossing the floor or it is merely a cricket which has made a single CH yes he has been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions but he had found all in vain all in vain because death in approaching him had stoed with his black sh before him and enveloped the victim and it was the mournful influence or the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel although he never saw nor heard to feel the presence of my head within the room when I had waited a long time very patiently without hearing him lie down I resolved to open a little a very very little crevice in the lantern so I opened it you cannot imagine how stealthily stealthily until at length a single dim Ray like the thread of the spider shot from out of the crevice and fell upon the Vulture Eye it was open wide wide open and I grew Furious as I gazed upon it I saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue with a hideous Veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones that I could see nothing else over the old man's face or person for I had a directed The Ray as if by Instinct precisely upon the Damned spot and now I have not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over acuteness of the senses now I say there came to my ears a low dull quick sound such as a watch makes when enveloped in Cotton I knew that sound well too it was the beating of the old man's heart it increased my Fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage but even yet I refrained and kept still I scarcely breathed I held the Lantern motionless I tried how steadily I could and maintained the ray upon the eye meantime the hsh to of the heart increased it grew quicker and quicker and louder and louder every instant the old man's Terror must have been extreme it grew louder I say as louder every moment do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous so I am and now at the dead hour of the night amid the Dreadful Silence of that old house so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable Terror yet for some minutes longer I refrained and Stood Still but the beating grew louder louder I thought the heart must burst and now a new anxiety seized me the sound would be heard by a neighbor the old man's hour had come with a loud yell I threw open the lanter and Le into the room he shrinked once only once in an instant I dragged him to the floor and pulled with a heavy bed over him I then smiled gay to find the deed so far done but for many minutes the heartbeat on with a muffled sound this however did not vex me it would not be heard through the wall at love it ceased the old man was dead I removed the bed and examined the corpse yes he was stone stone dead I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes there was no pulsation he was Stone dead his eye would trouble me no more if still think me mad you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body the night waned and I worked hastily but in silence first of all I dismembered the corpse I cut off the head and the arms and the legs I then took up three planks from the the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings I then replaced the BS so cleverly so cunningly that no human eye not even his could have detected anything wrong there was nothing to wash out no stain of any kind no blood spot whatever I had been too we for that a tub had caught all haha when I made an end of these labers it was 4:00 still dark as midnight as the bell sounded the hour there came a knocking at the street door I went down to open it with a light heart for what had I now to fear there entered three men who introduced themselves with perfect suavity as officers of the police a shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night suspicion of Foul Play had been aroused information had been lodged at the police office and they the officers had had been sent to search the premises I smiled for what had I to fear I bade the gentleman welcome the shriek I said was my own in a dream the old man I mentioned was absent in the country I took my visitors all over the house I made them search search well I led them at length to his chamber I showed them his treasures secure and Disturbed in the enthusiasm of my confidence I brought Chairs into the room and desired them here to rest from their fatigues while I myself in the wild Audacity Of My Perfect Triumph placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim the officers were satisfied my manner had convinced them I was singularly at ease they sat and while I answered cheerily they chatted of familiar things but ear long I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone my head ached and I fancied a ringing in my ears but still they sat and still chattered the ringing became more distinct it continued and became more distinct I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling but it continued and gamed definitiveness until at length I found that the noise was not within my ears no doubt I now grew very pale but I talked more fluently and with a heightened voice yet the sound increased and what could I do it was a low dull quick sound much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in Cotton I gasped for breath and yet the officers heard it not I talked more quickly more vly but the noise steadily increased I arose and argued about Trifles in a high key and with violent gesticulations but the noise steadily increased why would they not be done I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides as if excited to Fury by the observations of the men but the noise steadily increased oh God what could I do I foed I raved I SW I swung the chair upon which I'd been sitting and gred it upon the boards for the noise arose over all and continually increased it grew louder louder louder and still the men chattered pleasantly and smiled was it possible they heard not almighty God no no they heard they suspected they knew they were making a mockery of my horror this I thought and this I think but anything was better than this Agony anything was more toble than this derision I could bear those hypocritical Smiles no longer I felt that I must scream or die and now again H louder louder louder louder Fain I shrieked dissemble no more admit the deed tear up the planks here here it is the beating of his Hideous Heart