The Tell Tale Heart - Edgar Allen Poe
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Young Adult (18-35)Accents
British (General) British (Received Pronunciation - RP, BBC)Transcript
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the Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. Published 18. 43 True Nervous. Very, very dreadfully nervous. I had been an arm But why will you say that? I'm mad. The disease has sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not stalled them above all. What's the sense of hearing acute? I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in ****. 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 he had the I've 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 up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever. Now This is the point. You fancy me mad madmen? No, nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded. With what? Caution With what? Foresight? With what dissimulation. I went to work. I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it Oh so gently. And then when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed close that no light shone out. And then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in. I moved it slowly, very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man 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. Uh huh. Would a madman have been so wise as this? And then my head was well in the room. I undid the lantern cautiously. Oh, so cautiously, cautiously for the hinges creaked. I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture I and this I did for seven long nights, every night, just at midnight. But I found the eye always close, and so it was impossible to do the work. It was not the old man who vexed me but his evil eye. In 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 enquiring how he's passed the night. So you see, you 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. I watched minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Now, before that night, had I felt the extent of my own powers of my sagacity, I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there was opening the door little by little, and he 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 black as pitch with a thick darkness, for the shutters were close, fast and 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. I was about to open the lantern. When my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, the old man sprang up in 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 death Watch is in the wall. Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It is 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 was welled up from my own Bassem, deepening with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I nude well, I knew what the old man felt and pitied him. Although I chuckled at heart, I knew that he had 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'd been trying to fancy them cause Elizabeth 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 chirp. Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions, but he had found all in vain, all in vain because death in approaching him. It's stocked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the UN perceived shadow that caused him to feel, although he neither 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 Kravis in the lantern, so I opened it. You cannot imagine how, stealthily, stealthily, until at length, a simple dim ray like the thread of the spider should from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture I It was open, wide, wide open, and I grew furious as I gazed upon it, I saw it with perfect distinctness, all the dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones. But I could see nothing else if the old man's face or person. For I directed the rays of by instinct precisely upon the damned spot. And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over acuteness of the sense. 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, which 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 maintain the ray Upon the eve. Meantime, the hellish tattoo 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 louder every moment. Do you mark me? Well, I've told you that I am nervous. So I am. And now at the dad hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house. So stranger noises 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 neighbour. The old man's our had come with a loud yell. I threw open the lantern and leaved into the room. He shrieked once, once only in an instant. I dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily to find the deed so far done. But for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me it would not be heard through the wall at length it seized. The old man was dead. I removed the bad and examined the cobs. 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 you 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 cops. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs. I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scant Ling's. I then replaced the boards 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 wary for that. The tub had caught all when I had made an end of these labours. It was four o'clock still dark as midnight as the bell sounded the hour they came and knocking at this street door I went down to open it with a light heart. What had I now to fear? There entered three men who introduced themselves with perfect suavity as officers of the police. This rig had been hurt by a neighbour during the night, suspicion of foul play had been aroused. Information had been lodged at the police office and they the officers had been deputed to search the premises. I smiled for what had I to fear. I bade the gentlemen 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 bade them search search? Well, I led them at length to his chamber. I showed them his treasures secure, undisturbed 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 he's they sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But here long I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head act and I fancied ringing in my ears. But still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct. It continues and became more distinct. I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling, but it continued and gained definite this 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 in What could I do 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 vehemently, but the noise steadily increased high rose and argued about trifles in a high key with violent gesticulations. But the noise steadily increased. Why would there not be gone? I paced the flawed who and flow with heavy strides is of excited to fury by the observations of the men, but the noise steadily increased. Oh, God! What could I do? I foamed I raved. I swore I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting and grated it upon the boards. But the noise rose overall and continually increased. It grew louder, louder, louder And still the men chatted 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 tolerable than this derision. I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer. I felt that I am a stream or die. And now again, hug. Louder, Louder, Louder! No villains, I shrieked, Dissemble no more! I admit the deed. Tear up the planks here. Here it is. The beating of his hideous heart