First, a brief summary of “The Tell-Tale Heart.” An unnamed narrator confesses that he murdered an old man, apparently because of the old man's "evil eye" which caused the narrator to kill him. He then describes how he crept into the old man's room while he was sleeping and stabbed him, dragging the corpse away and dismembering it. SUMMARY. The unnamed narrator is the haunted widower of an otherworldly woman named Ligeia. Looking back on their courtship, he discovers that he no longer really remembers how and where they met or what family she comes from. All it can evoke is the general feeling that they are meeting in a dark, ruined castle on the banks of the Rhine. Edgar Allan Poe is an American poet, prose writer and literary critic. Born into a family of Boston actors at the beginning of the 20th century, he was orphaned at a very young age and taken in by a family of prosperous merchants. Throughout his life, Poe experienced conflict with his adoptive father, military service, and that of his brother.