Melancholy Mentor Podcast
Welcome to Melancholy Mentor where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays.
Melancholy Mentor Podcast
Unraveling Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart
Join us on Melancholy Mentor as we explore Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart."
Fran from Melancholy Mentor and Evan from Mystery Mythos guide you through the haunting work of Poe, uncovering the rich themes of guilt and obsession within the story.
We kick off our journey by delving into Poe's life, highlighting his Boston origins and the turbulent personal experiences that influenced his writing,
Send us an email to let us know your thoughts or if you have anything to add at ⏬⏬
info@melancholymentor.com
You can watch the radio drama episode we are discussing on our YouTube channel :
https://youtube.com/@melancholy_mentor
Hello everyone and welcome to Melancholy Mentor, where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays. I'm Fran and I'm joined by Evan from Mystery Mythos. Together, we're your guides on this creative journey. During each episode, we'll dive into stories featured on the Melancholy Mentor channel, allowing fresh ideas to flourish, inspiring you to dream big and unlock your creative potential. Get comfy, open your mind and embrace curiosity. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:Hello, yeah, hi, so thank you for joining us. I'm Fran.
Speaker 3:And I'm Evan.
Speaker 2:We're going to delve into our first let me move my mic a little bit our first episode on the Melancholy Mentor channel, which is the Telltale Heart. Yes, so the Telltale Heart was written by Edgar Allan Poe. We're just going to fill in a few kind of details that I've looked up and then have a chat about it. So Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809. He comes from Boston, massachusetts, so we're based in the uk. Um, edgar allen poe is a? Um american, or was an american. We're just gonna brush on this lightly.
Speaker 2:He married his first cousin, virginia I think her name was virginia eliza um poe when she was 13 and he was 27. Um, there's a lot of kind of writings on this and historian stuff saying like you know, it was like a nurturing relationship or it's like we're gonna leave that alone. Yeah, so make of that what you will or look it up for yourself. I'm just gonna, we're just gonna go past that because I'm not delving into that. Unfortunately, virginia passed away at the age of 24. She had tuberculosis and I think I don't know whether it's a fact or whether this is like just an assumption that I think it was. Mask of the Red Death was written by a girl and poem I think it was Mask of the Red Death was written by Edgar Allan Poe and it's meant to be I don't know whether inspired is the right word, but due to Virginia's death of tuberculosis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, you know, there are kind of thoughts as to that was the reasoning behind him writing that. So Edgar Allan Poe was a writer, an editor and a literary critic. That's not easy to say, you have a go, evan. Literary, literary, yeah, I think you do that better than me. And he wrote short stories and apparently he's credited with contributing to the emergence of science fiction. Yeah, do you realise that? Yeah, I didn't know that. So I don't know quite how I feel about that. So he was born in 1809. He died at the age of 40. And we're going to get to that in a minute. So he's 40. So it's 1809 to 1849. So I'm just going to say that again. So apparently he's credited with um contributing to the emergence of science fiction.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, yeah, I did know, because I've got a couple of books and one of them's like horror, um, that he wrote Like it's like a little, it's just a short book, and the other one's science fiction.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and it's, and so that's when? Was that any idea when that was written?
Speaker 2:I don't know yeah, because I don't know about that, the Telltale Heart, which is a short story that he wrote I'm not sure when he wrote it, so this was and I don't know whether this is actually his theory, so I presume this is his theory of a literary theory of unity of effect. So this unity of effect is a theory that states that short stories should have an overall effect and be read in one setting. Yeah, so, and he kind of wrote the telltale heart based on that, um, and it kind of um, yeah, it's based on that, on that Theory. So, yeah, that sounds quite a brainy thing to to be thinking about, so I hope it's true. Um, yeah, telltale heart explores themes of love and hate. Um, it symbolizes the narrator's guilt.
Speaker 2:Um, and the telltale heart is actually my favorite poe story yeah um, and on various occasions over the years I've actually had things that I've done online and stuff like that and I've called myself Telltale Heart.
Speaker 1:So if anyone's seen that around.
Speaker 2:it may have been me, or it may have been. You'll never know. I know, I know, I feel like, because back in the day I used to be on CB radio, so like in 1980, I started on CB radio, which is Citizens Band Radio in the UK.
Speaker 2:So well, obviously they had it in other countries as well, but I'm in the UK, so I used to put like a little mag mount on my dad's car it was an old Vauxhall Victor and sit with a rig in the car and I kind of wish I'd called myself Telltale Heart then and just started. You know, yeah, at that. I kind of wish I'd called myself Telltale Heart then and just started, you know, at that age, as I meant to go on.
Speaker 2:But I kind of discovered Poe a little later than that, but there may well be something out there and it's me, but you'll never know.
Speaker 3:It's a cool name, isn't it though? I know, I really like it Like standalone, if you didn't know what the story was.
Speaker 2:Even I think it sounds cool the story was even I think it's, it's. It sounds cool, yeah, and I think possibly the raven and that was the first stuff that I dealt, I delved into, but the telltale heart really resonated with me like I just it's just such a um, an immense story.
Speaker 2:That's really gripping. Yeah, now there are adaptations of the telltale Heart that are actually voiced by Vincent Price. He's one of my favourite actors, so Vincent Price was a great admirer of Edgar Allan Poe's works and his lifespan. Vincent Price's lifespan is 1911 to 1993. Which just blows my mind, that somebody that you know, I hold in great esteem and you know the acting and his voiceover work and stuff like that. Yeah, she passed in the 90s and I'm like I don't know how I feel about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like it's like he's an old soul or something, but, um, yeah, he was actually 82 when he was okay, yeah, he was 82. Um, um, I looked this up and it said lung cancer and it had health, um conditions such as parkinson's and stuff like that. So, um, I don't know about you, but I have a thing about looking up, um, what people died of. Yeah, I always pure curiosity. Yeah, I've got a thing about, like, how tall were they? Though? Yeah, how did they die? How did they die? Random, but anyway, they're like that come into my mind when I think about it. Um, right, so let's delve into a little bit of pose death. Let's delve into a little bit of Poe's death. Have you ever looked?
Speaker 3:into what Poe died of. I think I looked a long time back and now I can't remember. But did he die? Did he die outside?
Speaker 2:or something. He was found outside.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I remember that. I remember it was outside, but I can't remember what he died of. No, I remember where he was yeah, that he was outside.
Speaker 2:So he was found um in 1849. So he died at the age of 40. Um. He was found semi-conscious and I've read about this before and I've read different reports on this and they're all like very, very similar and equally bizarre. So he was found semi-conscious in Baltimore, um, which is someplace in America yeah yeah, he wasn't wearing his own clothes, right? How do they know he wasn't wearing his own clothes?
Speaker 3:No idea. Maybe they had somebody else's name in them, or maybe they were way too big for him and not something he would have worn. I don't know.
Speaker 2:No idea, and apparently there are various reports stating that he was calling out the name reynolds or saying the word. Now is that I just assumed that it's the name, because it could just been the word reynolds, or yeah, he was calling out the name reynolds. Um, his final words and again, I don't know whether this is allegedly or you know, but there are reports on this as well several things that I found on the good old internet and that his final words will lord help my poor soul, crikey, I know, yeah, what was he doing? Was he on a park bench or something?
Speaker 3:in my head. I've got him lying on a bench, but that's the image when I said outside I've got him lying on a bench, but I don't know yeah, he may well have been found on a bench, so in a semi-culture state.
Speaker 2:So was he possibly psychotic or, yeah, had a substance or you know, was this? I mean, I think it all sounds very suspicious me too. Um, like a lot of mystery surrounding that, like it's quite bizarre, isn't it, and think that he was like the absolute kind of writer of the macabre and um, that really gothic literature and stuff like that, and then he died in very mysterious circumstances, yeah, which is very interesting. Yeah, and also I found out this as well I don't know why I'm laughing and newspaper it was because it just sounds so ridiculous. Newspapers at the time apparently reported it as congestion of the brain. Right, yeah, what does that mean? Congestion of the brain?
Speaker 2:maybe he'd gone mad I don't know, congestion of the brain. So was that like a block or yeah, did they, did they don't?
Speaker 3:did they see something? I?
Speaker 2:don't know, maybe, just maybe it was some kind of melancholy. How about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that would be something wouldn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because a lot of the stuff that you wrote, you know it was very kind of graphic and gothic and it really was. Wasn't it kind of melancholy-based, wasn't it, mm? Yeah? So, I feel like it's quite different to a lot of the historic deaths that you read, because quite often they say consumption yeah, yeah, that's a real popular word, isn't it?
Speaker 2:no, I know, especially within classic literature, you're kind of reading it and then some heroine or other and it's like they pass from consumption. I'm like what does that mean? Is like they pass from consumption. I'm like, what does that mean anyway? So thank you for joining us on this little chat about Edgar Allan Poe and the telltale heart, which is um one of the episodes that we've got on our youtube channel. So take a listen to that and we'll be back soon bye, bye.
