Plot Events
This physical feature of the old man is the narrator's sole motive for committing the murder.
What is the old man's pale blue "vulture eye" with a film over it?
From the very first line of the story, the narrator repeatedly insists that he is NOT this.
What is mad (or insane)?
The old man keeps his bedroom shutters close fastened at night due to his fear of these.
What are robbers?
The narrator's decision to place his chair directly over the hidden corpse during the police interview demonstrates this character flaw.
What is arrogant overconfidence (or audacity / hubris)?
This noun means the hiding or concealing of one's true thoughts, feelings, or intentions.
What is dissimulation?
The narrator sneaks into the old man's room at this exact time every night for seven consecutive nights before taking his life.
What is midnight (12:00 AM)?
The narrator claims his disease did not destroy or dull his senses, but rather did this to them.
What is sharpened them (especially his sense of hearing)?
The narrator describes the darkness of the old man's bedroom using this vivid simile.
What is "black as pitch"?
The rising, muffled beating noise that drives the narrator to confess symbolizes this uncontainable internal experience.
What is psychological guilt (or conscience)?
This noun refers to high intelligence, sound judgment, and wisdom.
What is sagacity?
On the eighth night, this specific accident startles the old man awake in his bed.
What is the narrator's thumb slipping upon the tin fastening of the dark lantern?
The narrator mistakes his methodical planning, patience, and stealth for proof of this mental state.
What is sanity (or wisdom / sound mind)?
The single ray of light escaping from the crevice of the lantern is compared to this item.
What is "the thread of the spider"?
In Paragraph 18, Poe repeatedly uses this exact clause refrain to highlight the narrator's escalating panic while talking to the police.
What is "but the noise steadily increased"?
These are energetic or violent hand and arm movements made while speaking or arguing.
What are gesticulations?
The narrator hides the dismembered body parts beneath this structural part of the bedroom.
What are the floorboards / scantlings?
The narrator demonstrates contradictory reasoning when he claims to feel this emotion toward the old man, despite chuckling at his terror.
What is pity / love?
These wood-boring beetles make a tapping sound in the bedroom wall and are superstitiously regarded as an omen of death.
What are deathwatches?
Poe uses dashes, exclamation points, and breathless repetition to create this type of structural pacing that reflects internal manic panic.
What is rapid, fragmented, or erratic pacing?
These are small wooden beams or structural framing timbers located beneath flooring boards.
What are scantlings?
The three police officers arrive at the house at 4:00 AM because of this specific report made by a neighbor.
What is a shriek heard during the night (raising suspicion of foul play)?
This literary term describes a first-person narrator whose version of reality cannot be fully trusted due to mental instability, delusion, or deception.
What is an unreliable narrator?
Poe shifted traditional Gothic literature away from remote castles and dramatic landscapes to everyday settings in order to focus on this type of horror.
What is psychological horror (or the horrors of the human mind)?
This literary device occurs when the reader recognizes that the narrator is insane, even though the narrator fully believes he is acting logically.
What is dramatic irony?
This verb means to conceal or disguise one's true motives or feelings, as used when the narrator shouts at the officers in his final breakdown.
What is dissemble?