The Tell-Tale Sound: Acoustic Narrative in The Tell-tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart is one of the masterpieces of Edgar Allan Poe, a pioneer of the American short story in the 19th century. The work is compact and fast-paced, and has attracted the attention of academics at home and abroad. Numerous scholars’ studies have focused on the aesthetics of effect, the atmosphere of horror, and unreliable narration, while acoustic narratives also play an inescapable role in Poe’s novels. Taking Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” as a textual object, this paper combines the concept of acoustics with narrative theory to analyse its narrative features and illustrate ethical lessons.