YMMV / The Tell-Tale Heart

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • What is the protagonist's relationship with the Old Man? Is the Old Man their father? Their grandfather? Some other older relative? Their employer? Simply a kind old man who let them stay at his house?
  • The hosts of The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast point out how unlikely it would be for police to just be chatting amiably while the protagonist goes mad in front of them, making the already Unreliable Narrator less reliable than ever.
  • Why does the protagonist hear the sound of the old man's heartbeat? Is he wracked by guilt for his heinous crime and can't stand it any longer, is he actually insane and having auditory hallucinations, or is he a raging narcissist who's committed the perfect crime and can't stand having no one know how clever he is?
• Funny Moments: This Animated Adaptation makes the story Denser and Wackier, where the harrowing events that unfold are over the top and played for Black Comedy, similar to cartoons like Ren & Stimpy and Courage the Cowardly Dog.
• It Was His Sled: The narrator loses it and reveals they killed the old man to the police by tearing apart the floorboards they buried him under.
• Jerkass Woobie: The narrator murders an innocent elderly man out of the most petty reason possible, but it's made increasingly clear throughout the story that they are completely and utterly insane and have no rational control over their actions.
• Paranoia Fuel: Imagine being watched every night as you sleep by a paranoid lunatic plotting to kill you because of a deformity you were born with. Now imagine waking up and knowing that someone is in the room with you but you don't know where they are.
• The Woobie: The Old Man. He allowed the protagonist to live with him out of the goodness of his heart (possibly him even being a relative), and paid the ultimate price all because of a deformity he had no control over.