The Plot Thickens
The narrator claims this body part of the old man is "vulture-like" and causes him to commit murder.
What is the pale blue eye?
The story is told from this perspective, allowing readers to see the narrator's madness.
What is first-person?
The "beating heart" is a symbol of this overwhelming emotion.
What is guilt?
This author wrote "The Tell-Tale Heart".
Who is Edgar Allan Poe?
This many police officers arrived at the door in the middle of the night.
What is three?
How many nights did the narrator watch the old man before killing him?
What is eight?
The narrator claims he is not this, despite his actions.
What is mad (or insane)?
The narrator compares the sound of the heart to a watch enveloped in this.
What is cotton?
What is the 19th Century (1843)?
The police came to the house because this person reported hearing a shriek.
Who is a neighbor?
Where does the narrator hide the old man's body?
What is under the floorboards?
What does the narrator fear, which causes him to kill the old man?
What is the "evil eye" (or the eye)?
This literary technique is used when the reader knows the narrator is crazy, but the narrator insists he is sane.
What is dramatic irony?
What is the genre of this story?
What is Gothic horror (or short story)?
Showing extreme confidence, the narrator placed his chair directly over this spot while talking to the police.
What is the spot where the body was hidden (under the floorboards)?
What sound does the narrator claim to hear that drives him to confess?
What is the beating of the heart?
What is the relationship between the narrator and the old man?
What is caretaker/lodger?
The old man's eye represents this theme.
What is insanity/perception?
What is the tone of the story?
What is suspenseful/nervous?
This is the cover story the narrator gave the police to explain the old man's absence.
What is that he was "absent in the country"?
How many police officers arrived at the door?
What is three?
The narrator says he loves the old man and has no motive for this.
What is greed?
The sound the narrator hears in the wall is believed to be this, a symbol of bad omens.
What is a Deathwatch beetle?
What is hearing?
The narrator eventually confessed because he believed the police were doing this to him.
What is mocking him (or deriding him by pretending not to hear the heart)?