Target Skills: literary devices, character analysis, theme analysis, and literary summarizing

Topic: lying, the question of sanity

THE TELL-TALE HEART

by Edgar Allan Poe

TRUE!--nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but
What do we
why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not
call the
destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard
person who
tells a story? all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How,
then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell
you the whole story.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once
What caused conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there Is the Old
the narrators was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given Man’s eye a
blood to go me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He valid reason
cold? had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell to kill him?
upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up Explain
my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.
What does
the narrator
Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you
decide to do? should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with
what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I
was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed There are
him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and two
opened it --oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for conflicts in
my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out, and the story,
The narrator then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I the stated
is talking to thrust it in! I moved it slowly --very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the conflict and
“you.” Who old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the the inferred
might “you” conflict.
opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! would a
be? What is the
madman have been so wise as this, And then, when my head was well in the stated
room, I undid the lantern cautiously-oh, so cautiously --cautiously (for the conflict,
hinges creaked) --I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the what is the
vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights --every night just at midnight -- inferred
Why can’t the but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for conflict?
narrator kills it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning,
the old man when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously
immediately? to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed
the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to
suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.
 Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the
door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before
that night had I felt the extent of my own powers --of my sagacity. I could
scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the
Why is it
door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts.
ironic that
I fairly chuckled at the idea; and perhaps he heard me; for he moved on the the old man
bed suddenly, as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back --but no. His feared
room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness, (for the shutters were robbers?
close fastened, through fear of robbers,) and so I knew that he could not see
the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily.
What caused
the old man I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb
to sit up? slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in bed, crying out
--"Who's there?"

I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a What event
has raised
muscle, and in the meantime, I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting
the action?
up in the bed listening; --just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to
the death watches in the wall.

What three Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal
things did the terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief --oh, no! --it was the low stifled
narrator say sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I
that the old knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept,
man was it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the
blaming the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, What
noise on? and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been lying should the
awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned in the bed. His old man do
in this
fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them
situation?
causeless but could not. He had been saying to himself --"It is nothing but the
wind in the chimney --it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or "It is merely a
cricket which has made a single chirp." Yes, he had been trying to comfort
himself with these suppositions: but he had found all in vain. All in vain;
because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before
him and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the
unperceived shadow that caused him to feel --although he neither saw nor
heard --to feel the presence of my head within the room.

How does the When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie
narrator down, I resolved to open a little --a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I
describe the
opened it --you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily --until, at length a
light upon on
the Old Man’s
simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell
eye? full upon the vulture eye.

It was open --wide, wide open --and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw
it with perfect distinctness --all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that
chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old
man's face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon
 the damned spot.

And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-
acuteness of the sense? --now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick
sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound
What made
well, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the
the narrator
“snap” and beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.
jump on the
old man? But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the
lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eve.
Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and
quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man's terror must have
been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! --do you mark me
well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of
the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as
this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I
refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! 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! With a loud yell, I threw How does
open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once --once only. In he point out
an instant I dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then his sanity?
smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart
beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be
heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed
the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my
hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation.
He was stone dead. His eve would trouble me no more.
Does the
If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the
Describe how disposal of
wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and
the narrator the body
concealed the I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all, I dismembered the corpse. I cut off support the
body? the head and the arms and the legs. narrator as
insane or
I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber and sane?
deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so
cunningly, that no human eye --not even his --could have detected anything
wrong. There was nothing to wash out --no stain of any kind --no bloodspot
whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all --ha! ha!

When I had made an end of these labors, it was four o'clock --still dark as
midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street
What event
door. I went down to open it with a light heart, --for what had I now to fear?
Who knocked has caused
on the door There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as the action
and at what officers of the police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night; to increase?
time? suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the
police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises.

How did he I smiled, --for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The
 react to the The
police? shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in narrator
the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search --search claims to be
well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, calm and
secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into intelligent
when
the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in
dealing with
the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very the police,
spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim. explain how
in fact he
The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was was not.
singularly at ease. They sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of
familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone.
My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still
chatted. The ringing became more distinct: --It continued and became more
distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and
gained definiteness --until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my
ears.

No doubt I now grew very pale; --but I talked more fluently, and with a
heightened voice. Yet the sound increased --and what could I do? It was a low,
dull, quick sound --much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in
cotton. I gasped for breath --and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more
What is the quickly --more vehemently, but the noise steadily increased. I arose and
narrator argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations, but the noise
hearing? steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro
with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men --but What is
the noise steadily increased. Oh God! what could I do? I foamed --I raved --I reoccurring
swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the in this
paragraph?
boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder --
louder --louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled. Was it
possible they heard not? Almighty God! --no, no! They heard! --they
suspected! --they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror! -this I
Why did he thought, and this, I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything
confess? was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no
longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now --again! --hark! louder! How do
louder! louder! louder! punctuation
and
It "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up repetition
the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!" build a
sense of
horror at
the end?

http://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/the_tell-tale_heart_0.pdf
Audio Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0cWecfoak

Video Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe0WyjiW5Ps

Extensions:
Students can write a paragraph speculating what happened to the narrator after confessing to killing the old
man. Because "The Tell-Tale Heart" is written as a flashback, students will address to whom the narrator may
be telling his/her story and why he/she is sharing this information.