Literary Terms
verbal irony
Was is the setting of the story?
a cemetery
Who is the narrator grieving?
What does the narrator of the story decide to do?
Murder the old man
Who dies in the beginning of the story?
Mrs. Mallard's husband
"While I nodded, nearly napping..." is an example of what figurative language?
alliteration
This is the main theme of the story.
love and loss
The raven repeats this word to torment the narrator.
Nevermore
Why does the narrator want to murder the old man?
Because of his evil/vulture eye
What is irony? What are the three types of irony?
Irony: when the exact opposite of what is expected occurs. The types are dramatic, verbal, and situational.
The wind roared throughout the storm is an example of what figurative language?
personification
This is the main literary element used in the story.
irony
Who is the bust that the bird perches on?
What happens at the end of the story?
The narrator's guilty conscience catches up to him and he confesses to the police that he murdered the old man.
How does Mrs. Mallard react to news of her husband's death? What does this show?
She celebrates which shows how little freedom women had at that time and how much control men had over them.
What are the two main symbols in "The Tell Tale Heart"
the old man's eye and the heart
What did the narrator see on his love one's tomb stone at the end?
A confession of how she had deceived hime
The raven symbolizes this.
grief/loss/death
Why is the story called "The Tell-Tale Heart"?
To represent the narrator's guilt conscience and the heartbeats he heard underneath the floor tiles while he was being interrogated by the police.
What type of irony is shown here:
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills
Verbal irony
An educated guess based on the information in the text.
inference
Where was the narrator at the end of the story?
lying unconscious on the grave
Poe is credited with creating what type of story?
detective
Is the narrator insane or is he simply a murderer with a motive? Justify your answer.
Teacher to decide
Give one example of irony from the story and explain how it is irony.
Answers will vary