1. Poe’s Recurring Themes, Symbols, and Motifs

2. The Tell-Tale Heart Meet the Writer
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in He was orphaned by age three and taken in by a foster family. Poe did not get along with his foster father, John Allan, and eventually Allan cut all ties with him. Poe died at the age of forty—a poor man but well-known for his tales of horror and mystery.
More about the writer.
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3. POE’S Definition of a Short Story
Short enough to be read in one sitting
Takes place in one locale on a single day
Centers on a single line of action
Maintains a single mood

4. Eyes One of his most common motifs Can be referred to as “orb”
Eyes considered to be window to the soul

5. Heart
Heart is important as both the physical “pump” of the body & as center of all feeling and experience
As a Romantic, Poe places greater emphasis on the HEART (representing emotion and experience) than on HEAD (representing intellect, rational thought, and scientific reasoning)

6. Unnamed Narrator
Unnamed narrator frequently tells stories (narrator not meant to represent Poe)
Lack of specific identity gives him an EVERYMAN quality ?

7. Premature Burial/Suffocation
2 concepts linked—“Life-in-death” theme
The idea of being enclosed with the dead while still part of the living

8. Vortex
Image and action of a spinning, swirling whirlpool that cycles like water down a drain
Ex. When a character is walking down a spiral or circular staircase, or being swallowed up by an angry, swirling sea

9. Dreams/Dreaming
Dreams are the porthole into the inner workings of the mind
Poe’s narrators and characters often talk about the subconscious dream state (Do they dream to remember or dream to forget?)
They may awaken from dreams and question whether they are awake or not
They may even seem to exist in an eternal dream-like state
Rarely are dreams soothing or pleasant

10. Two Sides of Oneself
Duality of man (man is both good and evil, light and dark can be contained in same person)
“Mirror” Image (the double or look-alike stranger)
“Twin” characters (separate yet inseparable)
Doppelganger—the motif of the double or fractured image fairly common to literature

11. Time/Clocks
Many of his stories are set in ambiguous times and places, making them universal and contemporary to the reader of any era
Poe frequently uses HOURS and times of day (especially 3:00, 6:00, 9:00 and 12:00)
Uses direct and subtle references to TIME or CLOCKS
Events often begin at dusk and end with daybreak “The witching hour” of 12 midnight

12. Animals
Repetition of certain types of characters—black cats & black ravens
Narrator may “lead” the reader into thinking such an animal is innately evil or has magical powers
Reader has to determine based on behavior of the animal whether this is true or if narrator is just projecting his own beliefs onto the animal.

13. More Motifs
Sounds/Noises- howls, grating, thunder, sighs, moans, clanking, crazed laughter, ticking of clocks, beating of hearts
Fear/Terror/Sorrow- afflicted, anguish, agony, despair, horror, wretched, agitated, etc.
Betrayal - (double)
Sense of mystery- prophecy, secret, spirit, strangeness

14. The Tell-Tale Heart Literary Focus: Narrator and Irony
As you read “The Tell-Tale Heart,” you will be asked to figure out if the story’s narrator is reliable. ?
The narrator is the person who is telling the story.
Sometimes the narrator cannot be trusted to let us know what is really going on.

15. The Tell-Tale Heart Literary Focus: Narrator and Irony
As you read “The Tell-Tale Heart,” you will also be asked to identify and appreciate irony in the story.
Irony can be described as the difference between what you expect—or what the narrator tells you— and what is real.
Listen to this excerpt again. What example of irony do you see already in what the narrator has told you?

16. The Tell-Tale Heart Literary Focus: Narrator and Irony
There are three kinds of irony:
Verbal irony
We say just the opposite of what we mean.
Situational irony
What happens is different from what we expect.
Dramatic irony
We know something a character doesn’t know.

17. Verbal Irony
Verbal irony occurs when there is a contrast between what is said or written and what is really meant.
In speech, a person’s tone of voice helps us identify verbal irony.
I’m so glad that I brought the sunscreen.
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18. Situational Irony
Situational irony occurs when a situation turns out to be the opposite of what we expect.
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19. Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony occurs when the audience or reader knows something that the characters do not know.
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