Interpret
Does the narrator’s opinion of himself in lines 1-16 make him seem more, or less reliable? Explain your answer with support from the text.
No, because he begins by talking about his mental disease and lines 19-20 he says "how wisely I proceeded" and "with what foresight" tells us that he does not see life clearly.
What prevents the narrator from killing the old man during the first seven nights? Explain how his inaction contributes to the suspense.
He believes he needs to wait for the "vulture eye" to be open. This creates suspense. Readers can feel the narrator's anxiety & tension about what will happen if the old man's eye is ever open.
In what way does the author's repeated image of the "eye of a vulture" help to create suspense?
It tells readers what the "eye of the vulture" looks like and that it makes the narrator's "blood run cold". We can sense that something bad is going to happen. This creates suspense.
Do you think the reader's ability to trust the narrator increases the suspense in this story? Explain your answer.
Yes. The narrator's mental state let's readers know that his view of reality cannot be trusted and readers wonder what the narrator will do next.
Reread lines 88-105. What do readers learn from this first-person narration about the narrator's personal experience?
The narrator claims to hear the victim's heart beating, a sound that drives him to finally kill the old man. The narrator talks about how angry the sound makes him. This tells us how he's thinking and his emotions.
In lines 151-160, the narrator makes his case to the police and thinks he has convinced them of his innocence. What happens next that leads the narrator to finally confess? What does this tell about his mental state?
He gets a ringing in his ears that drives him to confess that "it is the beating of his hideous heart!"