“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe

Study Questions:

1. What specific details contribute to the setting of this

“tale of terror”?

2. How does Poe’s choice of narrative point of view

contribute to the overall mood of the story?

3. Note the various descriptions of the eye. Why do you

suppose the narrator is so bothered by the old man’s
eye? What could the eye symbolize?

4. When the story was originally published in 1843, Poe

included the following epigraph. Epigraphs are short
quotations or sayings at the beginning of a text,
intended to suggest its theme. Does this epigraph add
anything to our understanding of Poe’s theme?

Art is long and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
-Longfellow