The Tell-tale Heart

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The Tell-tale Heart

• By Edgar Allan Poe

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Anticipation Guide

• Part I Describe 5 things you expect to find in
  scary stories.
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.

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Part II. Read the following statements and decide
whether you agree or disagree.
Statements Agree Disagree
People who are insane always know that they are insane.
Sane people sometimes imagine that they hear things.
If you commit a major crime, sooner or later you will be caught.
When youve done something wrong, its agony to wonder if youll be caught.
All people share the same fears.
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Vocabulary

• acute audacity derision
• foresight mockery premises
• profound raved refrained
• sagacity stifled unperceived
• vehemently vex waned

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Vocabulary (pg 1)

• acute adj sharp or keen (sense of hearing)
• audacity n presumption bold courage
• derision n contempt or ridicule
• foresight n a looking forward to future or
  what will happen
• mockery n a person or thing receiving or
  deserving ridicule

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Vocabulary (pg 2)

• premises n a piece of real estate house or
  building and its land
• profound adj marked by intellectual depth
• raved v to talk wildly with excessive
  enthusiasm
• refrained v held back kept from doing
• sagacity n keen perception or intelligence
  sound judgement

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Vocabulary (pg 3)

• stifled v to suppress or hold back
• unperceived v not seen or understood
• vehemently adv acting with great force
  violently or forcefully
• vex v to disturb or annoy to terrify
• waned v to become less intense (fading)

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Edgar Allan Poe

• Virtually created the detective story and
  perfected the psychological thriller
• Ran up gambling debt and could not finish school
  went into the army instead (engagement broke
  off)
• Wrote short stories and poetry too

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Literary Terms

• characterization the authors expression of the
  characters personality (actions, thoughts, etc.)
• conflict the struggle (character against self
  against society against nature against God)
• dialogue vocal exchange between characters

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Literary Terms (pg 2)

• imagery the collection of words that evoke
  atmosphere, mood, and tension
• point of view the view from which the author
  presents the action
• 3rd person-ominscient an all-knowing author
• 3rd person- limited limited to the views of 1
  character
• 1st person the voice thoughts of one
  character

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Literary Terms (pg 3)

• symbol something which is itself yet also stands
  for or means something else
• tone suggests an attitude toward the subject
  which is communicated by the words the author
  chooses (ie. Playful, somber, serious, casual,
  formal, ironic, etc.)

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Questions How he keeps thereaders suspense

• 1. Describe the character telling the story.
• 2. How does the first sentence create suspense?
• 3. Find and write a sentence for TIME going
  slowly and one for TIME going fast.
• 4. Why do you believe he mentions TIME so much,
  and why he changes the pace from slow to fast?

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Questions continued . . .

• 5. Write down one example of repetition of words
  from the story (ie. Very, very slowly.)
• 6. List some of the evil words that he uses what
  effect do these words have on you, the reader?
• 7. How does he make the evil eye sound
  disgusting? (What words does he use?)

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Questions continued . . .

• 8. How does he make the death of the man sound
  disgusting?
• 9. The story is written in 1st person narrative
  by the main character. List a quotation where
  the main character directly refers to the reader,
  you. Why does he do this?

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Questions continued . . .

• 10. Why does Poe have the murderer tell the
  story?
• 11. In your own words, explain why the story
  gripped your imagination.

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Writing Assignment Point of View

• This story is told in first-person point of view.
  The first-person narrator is a wonderful way to
  tell a story because it makes the story seem more
  believable, and the reader really gets to know
  the character. However, the story s limited to
  that persons perception. The narrator in this
  story is unreliable because we know from the
  beginning that he is insane. Retell the story
  from the point of view of another character the
  old man, one of the officers, or the next door
  neighbor.