6.6 Edgar Allan Poe – "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843)

Author/context: Poe (1809–1849), American pioneer of the short story and psychological horror; first published 1843 — public domain, read it in full.Synopsis: An unnamed narrator, desperate to prove he is not mad, recounts how he decided to kill the old man he lived with — not for money or hatred, but because of the old man's pale "vulture eye". For seven nights he enters the sleeping man's room; on the eighth, the eye open, he kills him, dismembers the body, and hides it under the floorboards. Police arrive (a neighbour heard a shriek); the narrator, confident, even sets his chair over the boards — until, tormented by a rising sound he takes for the dead man's heartbeat, he breaks and confesses: "tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!" The sound, we suspect, was his own guilt.Themes: guilt and conscience; the unreliable narrator; madness vs criminal responsibility; the return of the repressed.Legal issues raised (a rich exam set):1. Mens rea and insanity — the narrator insists on sanity while describing an obsession (fixed idea, compulsion). Is he capable of criminal intent, or does mental illness negate responsibility?The Muluki Criminal Code 2074 deals with criminal responsibility of persons of unsound mind (and diminished responsibility); classic defences: M'Naghten rules (did he know the nature…