Created by DesignToscano, a company which “offers specialty home and garden decor, reproduction furniture and accessories, indoor and outdoor statuary, and one-of-a-kind home and garden accents”, the blood-red gothic sculpture of Poe’s titular Tell-Tale Heart short story immediately catches the eye. Standing 5 inches tall, with a width of 3½ inches, a 3 inch diameter, and a weight of 2 pounds, the heart bleeds in hand-painted shades of red which makes it come to life as if freshly pulled from a body. Made of quality resign, elements of the Tell-Heart narrative are addressed in great detail. Touching the surface of the sculpture, your finger traces upraised veins, the superior vena cava, aorta, and pulmonary artery. You can even poke into the curved openings leading into the organ. The resin of the main structure is smooth yet, upon the specific parts of the heart, form grooves (most likely made by a sharp object of some kind) that add life-like detail. Between the superior vena cava and the pulmonary artery an opening leads through the back half at, approximately, a 70° angle. An ornate gold & black plastic dagger–meant to function as a letter opener–pierces this opening, so that the dagger’s pointed edge can nestle in a subtle crease formed by the sculpture’s bloody base. The heart’s size limits the number of suitable locations to set and display the artifact; a shelf would be appropriate, but considering that the dagger piercing the heart serves as a letter opener, the intended location would likely be a writing desk.
While the sculpted heart purposefully provides a provocative image, DesignToscano frames the object as a piece of pop culture merchandise. The description on the website initially asks, “Has the sword of truth ever pierced your heart?” It also invites customers to “Celebrate Edgar Allen Poe's 1843 dark tale of conscience with this amazing neo-Victorian tell-tale heart sculpt meant to awaken the senses as much as the original legendary literary triumph.” The Tell-Tale Heart sculpture is the only product explicitly linked to the work of Edgar Allan Poe offered by DesignToscano. Though products linked to Poe typically feature a raven, this sculpture instead celebrates The Tell-Tale Heart. Here, DesignToscano’s description addresses themes less recognized outside of academic circles: namely truth and morality.
That said, while the sculpture’s life-like appearance definitely evokes the macabre, the size of it doesn’t strike as the most visually imposing thing in the world. If DesignToscano were trying to channel the gothic horror found in the work of Poe, they would have had a better chance crafting “The Mask of the Red Death” or “The Pit and the Pendulum”; instead, they chose “The Tell-Tale Heart”, which stands as the most expressive of Poe’s stories when it comes to the theme of truth and accountability. The narrator kills an old man for no reason other than that “one of his eyes resembled that of a vulture––a pale blue eye, with a film over it.”(Poe 555). Upon confirming the old man’s death, the narrator “dismembered the corpse. [He] cut off the head and the arms and the legs. [He] then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings” (Poe 558). When policemen come to investigate, they aren’t the ones that ultimately expose the narrator for his crimes. Instead, as madness and guilt of his terrible act wrestle within the narrator’s consciousness, he exposes himself. Though actively lying to authorities, he could not let the truth–the once beating heart of the old man that he killed–go unaddressed despite the fact that his freedom depended on keeping quiet. In this way, he is held accountable and brought to justice by no other than himself.
The very nature of the Tell-Tale Heart’s plot speaks to the type of individual that DesignToscano is trying to address. The opening of their description, “Has the sword of truth ever pierced your heart”, implicitly expects knowledge of the short story and purposely hails the intended customer by appealing to consciousness at unease. In fact, who holds the sword of truth? No hand is present in the sculpture, which suggests that the sword of truth can only be held by the customer. There remains an expectation set for the customer to respond to DesignToscano’s hailing and say, “why yes, I like to believe I hold myself accountable for my actions, even when I make terrible mistakes”. The statue, meant to occupy a space on one’s desk, can then be thought to appeal to people who value honesty in everything–even when the truth might cause harm to themselves or others–while also serving as a reminder that no action is without cost. As such, I believe Tell-Tale Heart marks a significant departure from a standard representation of Edgar Allan Poe in the pop culture canon.