Thomas Wheeler 11AR/11A1

“The Tell-Tale Heart”

Edgar Allan Poe

1. The story is told from the point of view of the murderer (1 st person), who is a lodger at the
home of a kind, elderly man. However, the narrator soon believes that one of the man’s eyes
is evil, and resembles an eye of a vulture. Due to this belief, the narrator decides to kill the old
man, although the man has never wronged the narrator. The man tries to convince us that he
is not mad because he planned the murder so thoroughly and carefully. For a week before the
murder, the narrator is the kindest he’s ever been to the old man, and, each night, around
midnight, the narrator would very slowly poke his head into the old man’s room and shine a
tiny ray of light onto the man’s evil eye. He could not bring himself to murder the old man,
however, as the eye was always closed. But on the eighth night, while entering the room, the
narrator accidently wakes up the old man. Still edging slowly into the room, not giving up, the
narrator finally kills the old man, who lets out a single cry. The narrator leaves no trace of the
crime and hides the old man’s body underneath the floorboards of the bedroom, which proves
a wise precaution as three policemen were sent to investigate a scream heard from the
house. The narrator invites them to search all over the house, telling them that the old man
was out of the town at the moment and that the scream heard was his own, when waking up
from a nightmare. The narrator, after successfully lifting any suspicion off him, invites the
policemen to stay a while and to have a rest, and they all talk in the old man’s room, with the
narrator sitting above the body. They accept and all seems fine, however, the narrator soon
starts to hear a repeating sound coming from somewhere close to him, although the
policemen seem to not hear it. The narrator starts becoming edgy and worried, also extremely
paranoid that the policemen have in fact heard the repeating noise and are just playing with
him, mocking his insanity. As a result, after not being able to take the pressure anymore, the
narrator leaps up and confesses to the murder, showing them where the body was hidden.

2. The narrator is never named in the story (neither is the old man), as is his sex, location,
occupation, or exact relationship with the old man.
It is clear from the beginning that the narrator, who is also the murderer, is paranoid as he
repeatedly tries convincing us that he is not insane because he planned and executed his
plan extremely carefully, but when he does try to convince us, he only serves to further prove
his insanity. The narrator seems to suffer from a case of monomania, which is an unhealthy
obsession with something, and he also states that he suffers from highly acute senses, which
might explain the monomania/obsession with the “vulture eye”.

1. The first sentence creates suspense as the first word is “True!” which leaves the reader
wondering what the context the word is in. The narrator starts the story by asking us why we
judge his sanity, which creates an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, and we are
automatically reading the story for signs of the narrator’s insanity, thus resulting in a story
about the psychological mind-frame of the narrator, rather than the actual murder or
investigation itself, as the story focuses more on the narrator’s mental state, as the situation
around him continually changes.

2. Three quotations to do with time going slowly are, “It took me an hour to place my whole head
within the opening”, “A watch’s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine”, and, “For a
whole hour, I did not move a muscle”. Two quotes to do with time going fast are, “I threw open
Thomas Wheeler 11AR/11A1

the lantern and leaped into the room”, and, “but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened
voice”.

The reason time is used so frequently in the story is mostly due to the need of showing just
how precise, obsessed and calculated the narrator is, as it shows us that, at the same time
each night, for eight days, the narrator would very slowly move his head into the old man’s
bedroom, then slowly direct a tiny ray of light from the lantern into the old man’s eye. Then,
the pace of the story changes as the narrator murders the old man, but slows down as the old
man’s heart stops beating, continuing throughout the policemen’s search of the house.
However, the pace quickens once again when the policemen start relaxing in the home and
they and the narrator are sitting and talking in the old man’s bedroom, as the narrator starts
hearing the old man’s beating heart once more, this time steadily rising, growing stronger,
louder and faster.

3. Three examples of repetition in the story are “With what caution -- With what foresight -- With
what dissimulation”, “How stealthily, stealthily”, and, “Louder! Louder! Louder! Louder!”.Edgar
Allan Poe uses repetition many more times in the story, and they are used because each use
of repetition helps contribute to adding more atmosphere to the story, adding to the suspense
and fear that we already feel. When they are used, the story slows down slightly, which
makes our anticipation for finding out what happens next grow, and this pulls us further into
the story, making us read on. As the story is a 1st person account of the event, thinking solely
about its use in the plot, it helps underline how detailed the narrator is in his details and how
much he obsessed over the murder.

4.

Noise (Quote) Effect on the Reader Reason Why Poe Chose the
Noise

“Hinges creaked”
This is commonly associated
with haunted or old houses, so
we are automatically put in a
“horror” genre frame of mind.
Poe used this in order to put us
in that state of mind, but also to
give that sense of impending
doom and terror as the narrator
silently enters the bedroom.

"Groan of mortal terror" This makes us feel for the old We have all felt this groan
man, and becoming increasingly ourselves, making the old man’s
worried about the narrator’s terror more personal to us, so
intentions. we are drawn in more.

"Low, dull, quick sound"
This creates tension for us, as
we can feel the story’s pace
quickening, and so we are drawn
in to find out what happens, as
we can tell we are nearing an
important part of the story.
This was used in order to
quicken the pace of the story, by
matching our reading-speed with
the rhythm of the sound.

"Heightened voice"
This is used to tell us that the Poe uses this to show the
narrator is starting to lose control increased fear in the narrator’s
of his calm demeanour, and as voice, as the narrator is under
such, we read on to find out if pressure.
the narrator succeeds in getting
away with the old man’s murder,
even with the added stress on
the narrator.

"Heavy strides" This shows us that the pressure Poe uses this in order to show
is still building on the narrator’s an increase in the amount of
Thomas Wheeler 11AR/11A1

conscience, which makes us pressure on the narrator, but

wonder even more if he will get also to represent the heavy
away with the murder, although weight of the guilt of the murder
it’s extremely unlikely at this that the narrator committed.
point.

5. Some of the evil words that Poe uses in his descriptions of various things in the story are,
“disease”, “destroyed”, “hell”, “haunted”, “terror”, “dreadful”, “shrieked”, and, “hideous”. These
words, and the many others that are used throughout the story, have a very powerful effect,
both in the story and on the reader. For instance, the first four examples create a strong
sense of mental illness, which it seems is something the narrator suffers from. On the other
hand, from the reader’s point of view, the last four words create an atmosphere that is filled
with fear and horror, as all four words are words that are not used lightly when describing
something.
Poe makes the eye sound disgusting by saying, “the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a
film over it”, “whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold”, “Evil Eye”, “all a dull blue, with a
hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones”, “damned spot”, “that no human
eye - not even his”.
Poe makes the death sound disgusting by describing the scene as having a, “dreadful
silence”. He also goes into some detail about how the corpse was treated after the death, by
telling us, “first of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs”,
“deposited all between the scantlings”, “a tub had caught all - ha! ha!”.

6. Three parts where the narrator directly speaks to the reader are, “but why will you say that I
am mad?”, “You fancy me mad”, and, “if still you think me mad”.
Poe uses this technique in order to make us feel closer and more involved in the story and in
the head of the narrator, as we can see how, when he talks directly to the reader, he mostly
just states how, contrary to our own belief, he is not insane, but just that he pays a lot of
attention to details and is a very calculating person.

7. After watching, and loving, Frasier, the American sitcom about a radio-psychiatrist, and being
greatly influenced by my dad and his own love of psychology/psychiatry, I have become
interested in the psychological side of things, even thinking about studying the subject in
college or/and university. So, when reading through The Tell-Tale Heart, I became interested
in the narrator himself, and the reason he found the old man’s eye so repulsive, eventually
driving him to murder.

It is more commonly assumed that the narrator is a man and, since it has been often thought,
the man is a servant or son of the old man. As such, the “vulture eye” represents the parental
surveillance and the paternal principles of right and wrong. The murder of the eye, therefore,
is a removal of conscience. The eye may also represent secrecy, again playing on the
ambiguous lack of detail about the old man or the narrator. Only when the eye is finally found
open on the final night, penetrating the veil of secrecy, the murder is carried out.
He also states that he suffers from highly acute senses, although it is never revealed if it is
true, despite the fact that knowing the answer changes the view of the narrator greatly, as, if
he does suffer from it, the repeated noise he was hearing could have been his own heart
beating, or “death watch beetles”, which are referenced in the story and are commonly
associated with death, in superstition, and they make a noise similar to a beating heart.
Whereas, if he doesn’t suffer from the disease, it was only the beating of his own nervous,
guilty, heart and/or his own imagination/insanity that led to his downfall.

I felt the story itself, however, doesn’t really grip my imagination or grab my attention,
although that might just be because this is not the first time I’ve read it in school, and I’m
Thomas Wheeler 11AR/11A1

getting bored of the story, or, more likely the bigger reason, as I’ve done this piece of
coursework already, although on a different story (Frankenstein). As such, my heart and
imagination just doesn’t care anymore about the story or as much as I usually would for this
coursework, as it seems there is no motive or use for (re-)completing this coursework.

The reason for the fact we’re doing it twice comes down to one pivotal change in the English
class structure that I myself was against as there seemed no apparent need to change the
structure, as why replace an already perfectly working idea with a new idea that was just in its
“beta”/ testing stage, as it were. I am of course talking about the idea of separating the boys
and girls of 9S (although we would become 10A1) into separate classes (the official reason
was trying to teach the boys and girls differently, as we apparently learn in different ways).
That meant that, as the classes were now half the size, the two separate-gender classes
would be merged with the next class down, 9I.
This would be fine, but 9S had already started work on and completed their first draft of the
poem-comparison of Cousin Kate and The Seduction, before the boys and girls were
separated for year 10. During the first four months of year 10, we completed first drafts of all
our coursework, including the coursework which focused on how the writer of a story (Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein, in this case) creates and maintains a certain atmosphere and effect in
the story (for Frankenstein, it was the tension created in chapter five, along with how Victor’s
disappointment was displayed), with the exception of the ex-9I boys who hadn’t started their
Cousin Kate/Seduction comparison.

So, after Christmas, when Mrs. Jarvis, the boys’ English teacher, left on maternity leave, she
left us with Miss. Allan, who, under, I presume, Mrs. Jarvis’ instructions, had us all (both ex-9S
and ex-9I boys) start work on the poem-comparison coursework, this time focused on two
different views of London, the two poems being, “London”, by William Blake, and,
“(Composed Upon) Westminster Bridge”, by William Wordsworth. This meant that the people
who had already did that piece of coursework in 9S had to also do this coursework, instead of
just working, and, if need be, reworking as many times as possible, on their final draft of their
Cousin Kate/Seduction poem-comparison coursework.
Now, at the start of year 11, we have been told we are to complete the Frankenstein
coursework again, although this time focusing on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and
how he keeps the reader in suspense. The reason, apparently, for this same piece of
coursework needed to be completed again, is because not everyone completed the
Frankenstein coursework, although we have all the same boys in our class now as when we
completed the first draft of our Frankenstein coursework back in December.

So, you can see why I might not be very interested or imaginative when it come to The Tell-
Tale Heart, especially when I predicted that this sort of thing would happen, where separating
the class that were already working well and had already completed a piece of coursework
(albeit, first draft), would create problems in the future. Please see my London poem-
comparison coursework to see my answer for an alternative plan for going about coursework,
while avoiding this, now twice-occurring, situation where half the class, if not more, have
already completed a first draft of the coursework we have been told we have to work on.