English 10

Your essay on Freedom Writers is due no later than Wednesday. Be sure to complete and hand in all your short story questions. Today we will be reading "The Tell-Tale Heart."

English 10

Inside Stories II

"The Tell-Tale Heart"

Literary Terms for Emphasis:

                - psychological conflict

                - perceptions

                - atmosphere:       description, image, suspense

                - Point of View:    first person, vicarious experience

                - plot:                     antecedent action, exposition, foreshadowing, crisis, denouement

                - situational irony

               

Commentary:

                Poe's classic tale of horror is about a madman who is a prisoner of his own emotions; psychological conflict is the core of this short story.  The narrator's obsession with the old man's "evil eye" leads to a brutal, senseless murder.  Later, the narrator gives himself away because of his obsession with the beating heart - in fact his own heart - as his guilty conscience and overactive imagination prompt him to reveal his hideous crime to the surprised officers.

Questions:

1.             In point form, quote one example of each of the following, and then explain its effect upon the reader: 

                repeated words, questions, exclamations, dashes, and italics.

                                                                                                                10 marks

2.             Why do the policemen show up at the end of the story ?  What does the narrator

                tell them ?  Why does he finally break down in the conclusion ?

2 marks

                                                Quality of written expression             3 marks

                                                                                Total:                    15 marks