Unreliable Minds & Point of View
This narrator insists he is not mad because he can hear all things in heaven, in the earth, and in hell.
Who is the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart"?
Prince Prospero locks himself and a thousand nobles inside one of these secluded buildings to escape a deadly plague.
What is a castellated abbey?
In "The Raven," the bird repeats this single word at the end of almost every stanza, acting as the poem's refrain.
What is "Nevermore"?
The narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" hides the old man’s dismembered body under these.
What are the floorboards (or planks)?
Both "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" feature a mourning narrator who has lost the woman he loves—named Annabel Lee in one, and this woman in the other.
Who is Lenore?
Unlike the emotional narrators of Poe's horror stories, this rational detective solves the mystery in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."
Who is C. Auguste Dupin?
In "The Raven," the bird perches upon a pale bust of this Greek goddess of wisdom, symbolizing that the narrator's grief has overridden his logic.
Who is Pallas (Athena)?
In "Annabel Lee," Poe uses this poetic sound device in lines like "For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams."
What is internal rhyme (or alliteration)?
In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Dupin realizes the killer is not human after finding a tuft of reddish-brown hair and noticing the strange, superhuman size of these marks on Madame L’Espanaye’s throat.
What are finger marks (or bruises)?
While the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" confesses out of guilt, this killer keeps his murder a complete secret for fifty years.
Who is Montresor?
In "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor manipulates Fortunato by using reverse psychology and pretending to care about this specific health issue.
What is Fortunato’s cough (or the nitre/dampness in the catacombs)?
In "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor traps Fortunato inside a niche in the catacombs using bricks, mortar, and these heavy iron restraints.
What are chains (or fetters)?
In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator compares the sound of the old man's heartbeat to the ticking of one of these wrapped in cotton.
What is a watch?
In "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor proves to Fortunato that he is a member of the "masons" by pulling this tool out from beneath his cloak.
What is a trowel?
Both "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Cask of Amontillado" feature characters dressed in elaborate costumes because they take place during this type of festive celebration.
What is a masquerade (or carnival)?
Because the narrator of "Annabel Lee" blames these jealous heavenly beings for his bride's death, readers may question his grip on reality.
Who are the angels (or seraphs)?
In "The Masque of the Red Death," this towering object in the seventh, black-and-red room causes the partygoers to freeze in fear every time it chimes.
What is the ebony clock?
In "The Raven," Poe creates musicality using this device—repeating consonant sounds at the beginnings of words—in the phrase "weak and weary."
What is alliteration?
In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," witnesses from different countries all agree that the shrill voice they heard sounded like a foreigner speaking a language they didn't know, proving the killer was actually this animal.
What is an Ourang-Outang (orangutan)?
In both "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado," the killers do not murder for money or greed; instead, they are driven by personal obsession and perceived insults, which serve as their primary _____.
What is motive?
Unlike "The Tell-Tale Heart," which uses first-person narration to trap us inside a killer's head, "The Masque of the Red Death" uses this point of view to observe the entire abbey from the outside.
What is third-person omniscient point of view?
The seven colored rooms in Prince Prospero’s abbey are arranged from east to west to symbolize this inevitable human progression.
What is the stages of life (from birth to death)?
In "The Cask of Amontillado," Fortunato’s name—which sounds like "fortunate"—and his jester costume are both examples of this literary device, since his fate is anything but lucky.
What is irony (specifically verbal/dramatic irony)?
In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator shines a single thin ray of light from his lantern onto this physical feature of the old man before attacking.
What is his pale blue "vulture" eye?
Both "The Masque of the Red Death" and "Annabel Lee" illustrate this universal theme about human power when facing nature, disease, or death.
What is the idea that no amount of wealth, power, or walls can stop death (or death is inescapable)?