Monday, December 17, 2012

How does the narrator get rid of the blood in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

The unnamed narrator of the story says that he dismembered the body of the old man once the old man was dead (he'd smothered this old man, suffocating him to death), and this, of course, would release a great deal of blood from the body. He dismembers the corpse so that he can neatly bury it below the floorboards of their home. However, the narrator congratulates himself on his foresight, as he had thought ahead and had used "A tub [to catch] all" the blood. He, evidently, dismembered the old man inside a tub of some kind so that the blood would not spill everywhere and need to be cleaned up. He could simply rinse out the tub—a washtub of some kind, I assume—and dispose of the blood in that way. He says that "There was nothing to wash out—no stain of any kind—no blood-spot whatever." He is proud that he was so thoughtful.


Having killed the old man, the unreliable narrator sets about disposing of the body. He dismembers the corpse to make it much easier to conceal. The narrator may give the appearance of being mad (it can be argued whether he's insane or not; he's certainly trying to convince the reader of his sanity), but he's not stupid, and so the last thing he wants is to be caught. There's a problem, however. If you've ever watched TV shows like "C.S.I." you'll know just how much blood is involved in such a grisly procedure. If just one spot of the old man's blood is discovered, then the narrator will be exposed as a murderer.
But the narrator's already thought of that. He makes sure that a tub has caught all of the blood. The narrator is rather pleased with his cover-up of the brutal murder he's just committed. In fact, he's so confident that he's gotten away with murder that he has no hesitation in inviting police officers into his home when they come knocking at his door.

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