Vocabulary
Held Back
Refrained
Yet the sound increased and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound...
What is this describing?
The Old man's heart.
The person who tells the story.
The Narrator
Boldness
Audacity
"A pale blue eye, with a film over it"
What is the narrator describing?
The old man's eye.
Sharp
Acute
"Then I took three planks from the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings"
What was he doing here?
How he hid the body.
"Upon the eighth night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept."
What was the narrator doing each night?
The narrator planning the murder or stalking the old man.
What does the narrator say that his disease has done to him?
It has sharpened his senses.
The narrator compares the old man's eye to this bird
Vulture's eye
Ridicule
Derision
"For it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye"
What does this prove?
That he hated the eye and not the old man.
"In an instant I dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily to find the deed so far done."
The narrator killing the old man.
He thinks they are making fun of him.
Why the narrator is mad at the police.
"There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more."
What is he describing here?
That the old man was dead.
To be Disturbed
Vexed
"He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye!"
What does this prove about the old man?
The old man had never done anything to the narrator.
"I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search - search well. I led them, at length to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs..."
Why does the narrator bring the police to the room?
The narrator thinks he is going to get away with it.
You can evaluate the narrator's state of mind as unreliable when he describes what to you?
says he is sane, but then describes how cleverly he hid the body.
"But I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye."
Did the narrator kill the old man the first night? Why or why not?
He couldn't kill him the first night because his eye was closed.
What is said that is the opposite of what is meant.
Verbal Irony
"For the shutters were close fastened, through the fear of robbers"
Why is it ironic that the old man is scared of robbers?
The robbers didn't kill him, the narrator inside his home did.
"You should see have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution and with what foresight with what dissimulation."
The narrator does not believe himself mad.
How does the narrator create suspense?
He describes what the narrator did before the murder.
The eye is what the narrator dislikes not the old man. What lines can you use to prove this?
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. 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. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!