The Tell-Tale

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• The Tell-Tale
• Heart
• ----Edgar Allan Pore

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plot

• An old man has a clouded, pale and vulture-like
  eye which so distressed the narrator that the
  author wants to kill him.
• For seven nights, however, the old man's vulture
  eye is always closed, making it impossible to "do
  the work". On the eighth night, the narrator
  kills the old man and dismembers the body and
  conceals the pieces under the floorboards

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• When talking with the police, the narrator,
  however, begins to hear a faint noise, and he
  thinks which is the old mans heartbeat . Shocked
  by the noise, the narrator confesses to killing
  the old man and tells them to tear up the
  floorboards to reveal the body.

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(No Transcript)
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Genre of The Tell-Tale Heart

• Horror or Gothic Fiction
• The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a
  pleasing sort of terror .
• Poe focused less on the traditional elements
  of gothic stories and more on the psychology of
  his characters as they often descended into
  madness. 

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Writing style

• Point of view first-person, unreliable
• Sense of consciousness Psychological analysis of
  the criminal mind, a writer of nerves

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Point of View ---first person point of view
True!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I
had been and am but why will you say that I am
mad?Hearken! And observe how healthily-how
calmly I can tell you the whole
story -------------------------------------------
-------------------------

-You should have seen me -You would have
laughed to see how cunning I thrust it in -Now
you may think that I drew back -You cannot
imagine how stealthily...
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Unreliable narrators

• Attempting to prove his sanity
• Fully admitting he is guilty of murder.

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Psychological analysis

• -I could scarcely contain my feelings of
  triumph
• --------------------------------------------------
  -------
• - Was it possible they heard or not? Almighty
  God!-No, no! They heard!-They suspected!-They
  knew!-They were making a mockery of my horror!

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Theme

• Guilt and Innocence
• Every one has an evil side which would control
  us sometimes.
• EYEI
• A pale blue eye--- conceal the real self---add
  to the uncertainties---want to kill the man

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Hope U read anew into it