The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart Pre-Reading: Brainstorm at least five things that you look for or expect to find in a scary story. What did you write down and why? Do you believe that these things add to the atmosphere of a scary story? Are you scared by any of these things?

The Tell-Tale Heart Statements You Agree You Disagree Narrator Agrees Narrator Disagrees People who are insane always know that they are insane. Sane people sometimes imagine that they hear things.  If you commit a major crime, sooner or later you will be caught. When you’ve done something wrong, it’s agony to wonder if you’ll be caught.   All people share the same fears (i.e., the same things frighten all people.)  

The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart 'The Tell-Tale Heart' is a short story of madness and murder, and is one of Poe's best-known works. This appalling first-person confession remains as tense and shocking as it was when first published in 1843.

The story of domestic violence is told from the perspective of a nameless narrator. The protagonist's personal account appears grounded in an irrational fear, the horror of which is intensified by the narrator consistently reminding the reader that he is NOT insane.

There is an admission that the victim presented no threat to the narrator: 'Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.'

The Tell-Tale Heart Poe was a pioneer of the short story. He defined the genre as a narrative that could be read at a single sitting of between half and hour and two hours. Its essential purpose was to create 'a certain unique and single effect' with everything in the narrative unified to serve this aim.

A Typical POE PLOT A typical plot would have one or two short pieces of action introduced and brought to a climax, often by a twist at the end. The story is usually set in only one place. Characters are few in number, with the primary focus on one. 'The Tell-Tale Heart' is a perfect model of the genre.

The Tell-Tale Heart the initial situation conflict complication climax Plot Analysis Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation conflict complication climax suspense denouement and conclusion

INITIAL SITUATION Initial Situation: Not insane! and the "Evil Eye" The narrator wants to show that he is not insane, and offers a story as proof. In that story, the initial situation is the narrator's decision to kill the old man so that the man's eye will stop looking at the narrator.

CONFLICT Conflict: Open your eye! The narrator goes to the old man's room every night for a week ready to do the dirty deed. But, the sleeping man won't open his eye. Since the eye, not the man, is the problem, the narrator can't kill him if the offending eye isn't open.

Suspense Uh-oh, the police. The narrator is pretty calm and collected invites to hear a terrible noise, which gets louder and louder, and… COMPLICATION Complication: The narrator makes a noise while spying on the old man, and the man wakes up – and opens his eye. This isn't much of a complication. The man has to wake up in order for the narrator to kill him. If the man still wouldn't wake up after months and months of the narrator trying to kill him, now that would be a conflict.

CLIMAX Climax: Murder… The narrator kills the old man with his own bed and then cuts up the body and hides it under the bedroom floor.

SUSPENSE- You don’t know what will happen next. Suspense: Uh-oh, the police. The narrator is pretty calm and collected when the police first show up. He gives them the guided tour of the house, and then invites them to hang out with him. But, the narrator starts to hear a terrible noise, which gets louder and louder, and…

When the parts of a plot come together and a matter is resolved. DENOUEMENT When the parts of a plot come together and a matter is resolved. Climax of a chain of events when something is decided.

DENOUEMENT- Denouement: Make it stop, please! Well, the noise gets even louder, and keeps on getting louder until the narrator can't take it anymore. Thinking it might make the noise stop, the narrator tells the cops to look under the floorboards.

Conclusion: The narrator identifies the source of the sound. Up to this moment, the narrator doesn't identify the sound. It's described first as "a ringing," and then as "a low, dull, quick sound – much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton" Only in the very last line does the narrator conclude that the sound was "the beating of [the man's] hideous heart!"

NOW YOU WRITE A STORY 1. Include a fear we talked about yesterday. 2. Include a small thing that just makes you crazy when you see or hear it (eye) 3. Include atmosphere 4. Include some of the ingredients of a good story: the initial situation conflict complication climax suspense denouement and conclusion

The Tell-Tale Heart Discussion Questions: What components of a scary story were present in this story? How reliable is our narrator regarding his sanity? How does Poe use images and phrases to create an atmosphere of horror? Why does the killer confess? Does the heartbeat really tell the tale of the murder?