"The

Tell-Tale Heart"
by Edgar Allan Poe

How does Edgar Allan Poe keep the reader in suspense in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?
By using first person narration and by changing the pace of the story.
By putting the reader in the narrators point of view.

In your own words, explain what happens in the story

The narrator is a mad man who claims he isn’t, through the story he narrates things in first person and
explains how calculated his moves were, he stalked and old man who he claimed not to despise but he
hated his “evil eye” that was pale blue with film over it. The narrator wanted to get rid of him so after
watching him for several nights in a row he decided to kill him and the chop his body and place it under
the floor. After he committed the murder police showed up to the house and the narrator started
hearing in his head loud heart beating noises that he felt were real felt were real and he thought
everyone else could hear. He was going insane as the sound became louder and louder, he thought the
police officers were mocking him so he confessed to his crime and revealed the body under the floor.

In a paragraph, describe the character telling the story.
He is a man who claims not to be insane but rather simply have sharpened senses that cause him to
have acute hearing. He says he can hear everything from heaven to hell. The narrator describes how he
hates the old man with the “vulture eye” and how he wanted to get rid of it not because he hates the
old man himself, but because his eye was really disturbing. He stalked the old man for many nights in a
row and then killed him.


• Re-read the story and underline all the words that suggest fear and
horror.


Task:
Edgar Allan Poe uses language and literary devices to make the reader feel tense during the story.
1. How does the first sentence create suspense?
It creates suspense by using a first person narration and in that first sentence he is claiming he is
not insane.
2. Poe talks about TIME throughout the story:
Find three quotations to do with TIME going slowly in the story.

“And this I did for seven long nights – every night just at midnight.”
“It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon
his bed.”
“For seven days I waited. You think me mad, what madman would wait, could wait so patiently, so
long?”
Find two quotations to do with TIME going fast within the story.
“I talked more quickly- more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased”
“In an instant I dragged him to the floor”

 Write a paragraph about why Poe mentions TIME so much in the story, and why he changes the
pace of the story from slow to fast.
Because it’s used to build up tension in the story and it switches between different paces that go
fast or slow, these are very much like the beating of a heart and the pacing matches the
narrator’s mood. The faster it goes, the crazier he gets and his thoughts start racing. The slower
the pace, he is still isn’t sane but it gives us a sense that the story’s tension is building up and
that something is about to happen next.

3. Repetition:
Poe repeats words a great deal in the story i.e. "Very, very slowly". Write down 3 examples of
repetition and explain why Poe repeats words and phrases.
“I moved it slowly, vey very slowly”
“I undid the lantern cautiously-oh so cautiously-cautiously”
“I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily
He uses repetition to emphasize.



4. Poe uses noises to create atmosphere in the story. The main character says "I heard many things
in hell." Fill in this table:

Heart beating Suspense To show the narrators guilt

for killing the old men.

5. Descriptive Language: Poe describes everything in great detail so that the reader can imagine
the story like a film. He uses lots of imagery.

• List some of the evil words that he uses: what effect do they have in the story and on the
reader?
Wary, vehemently, nervous, vulture, evil eye, cautiously, villains.
All these words create suspense on the story and and on the reader and they also emphasize the
action
• How does he make the "eye" sound disgusting?
By calling it a vulture like eye that has a film over it.
 •How does he make the death sound disgusting?
He says he chopped the old man.

6. The story is written in first person narrative by the main character.
List 3 quotations where the main character directly refers to the reader. Why does Poe do this?
• Why does Poe have the murderer tell the story
To explain his point of view and to create more horror on the reader, because it just makes the narrator
sound insane.
• In your own words, explain why this story gripped your imagination.
Because the way it was narrated made me imagine in my head everything the narrator was
saying and describing.

Finally, draw a graph of the tension in this story.
Exposition Major Rising Climax Falling Resolution
inciting Action action
conflict

The narrator is The narrator lives in Over the next Finally, one Summoned by a The story ends when
introduced. He wishes the same building as eight days the evening, the old neighbor, the police the narrator believes
to prove his sanity to an old man who has narrator plots man wakes up and arrive, citing that he hears a ticking
the readers despite a disturbing eye. The killing the old man screams. Then the someone reported a noise that grows
having killed a man narrator says that it to get rid of the narrator pulls the scream. The narrator louder and louder. He
over his deformed is deformed, looking "eye". Each night man off the bed and tries to cover up by believes that it is the
eye. like a vulture's eye he enters the old smothers him with saying it was him that sound of the old
with a film covering man's room with his mattress until he screamed, and that man’s heart and
it. a lantern until he can no longer hear the old man was out of confesses to the
sees the eye. the old man's heart town. police.
beating.