The Tell Tale Heart

2. The Tell Tale Heart Questions and Answers

3. The Tell Tale Heart Summary: The narrator of the story is a renter who gets a little excited because his land lord has one dead eye - so he kills him and conceals him under the floor boards of his room. The police come looking for the old guy and have a pleasant conversation with the narrator in his room. The narrator however hears the beating of his victim’s heart and becomes more and more distressed until he flies into a fit, tears up the floor boards and tears the heart out of the corpse to show the police officers to prove to them that it really is making a noise.

4. 1) What does the story's title mean? The story's title refers to the beating heart that eventually drives the narrator to confess his crime. The reader is led to believe it is the beating of the old man's heart he hears, an impossibility, considering the old man has been murdered and dismembered, leaving three possibilities: (1) the narrator is insane; (2) the narrator feels guilt over the crime and hears his own heart; (3) both.

5. 2) The narrator claims he is not mad. What evidence do we have that he is? (1) He murders an old man because of his "vulture eye"; (2) He hears sounds from hell; (3) He dismembers the dead man's corpse; (4) He hears the beating of a dead man's heart; (5) He is paranoid; (6) He is "nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous."

6. 3) What does the narrator do with the dead man's body? The narrator dismembers the body and carefully places it under a few floor boards in the old man's room. He's confident that his crime will not be discovered, even inviting the investigator to sit on a chair directly above the dead body.

7. 4) Why does the narrator want to kill the old man? "Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!" (172).

8. 5) The narrator visits the old man's bedroom every night for seven nights before killing him on the eighth night. What finally causes him to commit the act? He hears the old man's heart. The narrator says, "It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into rage...the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant...I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me—the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man's hour had come!" (174-5).

9. 6) What sort of disease does the narrator claim to have and what has it done for the narrator's senses? The narrator claims to have a disease that makes his senses really powerful. It has sharpened them. "The madness had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute..."

10. 7) What is the narrator's strongest sense and what does it allow him to do? The narrator's strongest sense is his sense of hearing, and it allows him to hear everything that is going on everywhere, including "earth," "heaven," and especially "hell."

11. 8) What argument does the narrator present as to why he is not insane? The narrator claims that insane people have no knowledge or skill, but he has planned everything out very carefully.

12. 9) What was the reason why the narrator killed the old man? "I think it was his eye--yes it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it ran upon me my blood ran cold...."

13. 10) During the week before the narrator killed the old man, how did he act towards him? He was very kind: "I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him."

14. 11) How long did it take the narrator to place his head into the door so that he could see the old man? An hour: "It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed."

15. 12) For how many nights did the narrator look in upon the old man? Eight nights: "...and I did this for seven long nights--every night just at midnight-every night just at twelve...Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door."

16. 13) Why couldn't the narrator kill the old man on the first night? The eye was closed: "...but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye."

17. 14) What did the narrator do by accident which awakened the old man? His thumb slipped on the lantern. The narrator quietly laughed at the thought that the old man didn't have any idea about what he was up to, but this did not wake the old man up. It was when the narrator's thumb slipped on the tin fastening of the lantern that he woke the old man up.

18. 15) What causes the narrator to finally jump on the old man? He can hear the old man's heart beating, and at some point he feels it is so loud that is may wake someone up, so he jumps on the man to stop the noise.

19. 16) What did the old man cry out when awakened? "Who's there?" "I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down."

20. 17) What was the low, dull, quick sound that the narrator heard? The old man's heartbeat: "I knew THAT sound well too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage."

21. 18) The beating grew louder--what was the new anxiety that seized the narrator at this point? The sound being heard by neighbors: "...the old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room."

22. 19) After the old man was dead, what was the first thing the narrator did to conceal the body? He dismembered it: "I cut off the head and the arms and the legs."

23. 20) What was the next thing he did to conceal the body? He buried it beneath the floor.

24. 21) Why were the police sent to the house? A neighbour had heard the old man shriek and suspected foul play. The police were called to investigate it.

25. 22) What was it that made the narrator confess to the crime? The old man's heartbeat. It can be theorized that the guilt of the narrator was ultimately what made the narrator confess. The narrator hears a sound and swears that the sound was NOT his own. He insists that the heartbeat belonged to the old man, and could not figure out why the police officers couldn't hear it as well. We know that the heartbeat was the narrator’s, but we are viewing this from the standpoint of the narrator, not our own rational minds.

26. 23) How does Poe create tension and suspense in the story? He describes second by second the process that the narrator went through for seven nights and the night of the killing. Also, the state of the narrator’s mind leaves the reader to wonder what is going to happen, is he going to get caught, and how.

27. Pacing - the narrator describes the murder over several pages. Foreshadowing - "I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him." (172). Dangerous Action - the narrator invites the police officer to sit directly above the dead body.

28. 24) What ‘wise’ actions of the narrator ensured that no one would detect anything was wrong? He dismembered the body in some sort of tub to catch the blood. He buried the body parts in the floor boards, so they wouldn’t be found. He carefully replaced the floorboards so no one would notice.

29. 25) What are some examples of imagery used by Poe in the story? (How Poe allows the reader to either see, hear, smell, taste, or touch/feel something) “He groans a groan of mortal terror.” “…came to my ears a low, dull, quick, sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.” “…all a dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones…”

30. 26) Find additional examples of figurativelanguagein the story. (Simile, Alliteration, Repetition) Alliteration: “He groans a groan of mortal terror” Repetition: “… much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton”

31. 27) The two controlling symbols in the story are the eye and the heart. What might these two symbols represent? The old man's eye is "pale blue, with a film over it,“ indicating a lack of visual clarity and reliability. In this sense the eye symbolizes the narrator in so much that all the information we receive comes through his distorted mind, much in the same way everything the old man sees is filtered through his distorted eye.

32. Furthermore, the story is told through the narrator’s perspective, who claims his actions are on account of the distorted eye, which suggests the point of view is literally and symbolically filtered through the old man’s eye. Traditionally the heartsymbolizes the emotional centre of the individual. In The Tell Tale Heart, it symbolizes the narrators guilt.

33. 28) Plot: Create a timeline of events as they occur in the story. • The police come to question the narrator • The narrator kills the old man • The narrator speaks extra kindly to the old man • The narrator becomes obsessed with the old man’s eye • The narrator tears up the floorboards and admits to killing the old man • The narrator buries the old man in the floorboards • The narrator brags about his sagacity in planning • The narrator’s thumb slips on the lantern’s latch • The narrator hears the beating of a heart (will be on the timeline twice) • A neighbor reports hearing a shriek

35. A Tell Tale Heart Notes

36. Title It means "giving information (often which a person would not wish to be known)” Example: the telltale signs of guilt.

37. Plot Classic example of Freitag’s Pyramid

38. Point of view -Gothic horror story, told in 1st person point of view, dramatic monologue: from the perspective of a man who has committed a crime. -This story would be completely different if told from 3rd person point of view or from the point of view of one of the police officers.

39. Narrator -The biggest effect of Poe's decision to let his readers into the mind of the killer in his story is that it creates a nervous, creepy mood.

40. Title It means "giving information (often which a person would not wish to be known)” Example: the telltale signs of guilt.