Who wrote 'The Tell-tale Heart'?

Who wrote 'The Tell-tale Heart'?

• A. Hawthorne
• B. Poe
• C. Whittier
• D. Tennyson

Answer: (B)

Authorship of a famous gothic short story is being tested. The Tell-Tale Heart was written by Edgar Allan Poe, who is renowned for exploring guilt and the human psyche in suspenseful, claustrophobic narratives. The narrator in this story tells of his crime in tight, obsessive detail, and as guilt grows, the imagined heartbeat grows louder, driving the tension to a dramatic climax. This reliance on an unreliable first-person perspective and on symbolic sound—the heartbeat—exemplifies Poe's distinctive approach to psychological horror. The other writers listed are associated with different genres and voices: Hawthorne with moral allegory and dark romanticism, Whittier with poetry (notably abolitionist verse), and Tennyson with Victorian-era lyric and epic poetry. Their works do not include this particular tale, whereas Poe's signature blend of obsession, paranoia, and precise style is what makes the story uniquely his.

Authorship of a famous gothic short story is being tested. The Tell-Tale Heart was written by Edgar Allan Poe, who is renowned for exploring guilt and the human psyche in suspenseful, claustrophobic narratives. The narrator in this story tells of his crime in tight, obsessive detail, and as guilt grows, the imagined heartbeat grows louder, driving the tension to a dramatic climax. This reliance on an unreliable first-person perspective and on symbolic sound—the heartbeat—exemplifies Poe's distinctive approach to psychological horror. The other writers listed are associated with different genres and voices: Hawthorne with moral allegory and dark romanticism, Whittier with poetry (notably abolitionist verse), and Tennyson with Victorian-era lyric and epic poetry. Their works do not include this particular tale, whereas Poe's signature blend of obsession, paranoia, and precise style is what makes the story uniquely his.