Irony
Discuss the use of irony in "the Tell Tale Heart". Define irony. Then, identify at least three ways irony is seen in "the Tell Tale Heart" and explain how each example you share is ironic.
Irony: When something that happens is different from what we expect
Verbal Irony: We say just the opposite of what we mean
Situational Irony: What happens is different from what we expect
Dramatic Irony: We know something a character doesn't know
Example: We know the narrator is insane, but he doesn’t.
Expectation: The narrator believes that he is sane.
Result: The narrator goes even more insane to the point where he exposes himself.
Explanation: This is ironic, specifically dramatic irony, because we knew about the narrator’s insanity and how it would’ve likely led him into trouble, but he did not.
Example: The old man was afraid of robbers instead of the narrator.
Expectation: The old man thought that the problem would come from outside of the house.
Result: The narrator who lived with him killed him.
Explanation: This is ironic, specifically, situational irony, because we would expect strangers to be more dangerous than those we know.
Example: The narrator stated that “The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them” when being investigated by the police.
Expectation: The narrator is clear of suspicion and gets away with murder.
Result: The narrator gets caught.
Explanation: This is ironic, specifically verbal irony, because the narrator says that he is in the clear from suspicion when he eventually gets caught.
Discuss the mood in "the Tell Tale Heart". Identify the mood and then give three examples of how Edgar Allan Poe creates this mood. Be sure to explain how each example shows the mood.
The mood is Nervous/Fearful
Story Detail: The narrator starts yelling and going insane at the end of the story.
How this contributes to the mood: This contributes to the mood because this shows the narrator’s guilt and nervousness pushing him over the edge, and it also makes the reader feel nervous because people do not like to experience yelling and the threat of violence.
Story Detail: The recurring use of “-!”.
How this contributes to the mood: This contributes to the mood because both a dash and an exclamation mark create fast pauses that make certain parts of the story feel like they are going at an intensely fast rate, resembling the fast heart rate and the thoughts rushing through our minds when we feel nervous or fearful.
Story Detail: The word choice.
How this contributes to the mood: This contributes to the mood because Edgar Allan Poe uses intense words such as “dreadful, “haunted”, “terror”, and “vehemently” that create a frightening image that can make us feel nervous and afraid.
Discuss how Edgar Allan Poe uses foreshadowing in "the Tell Tale Heart". Identify three early events that foreshadow later events in the story, and explain how these later events are foreshadowed.
Later Event: The narrator's insanity at the end of the story
Earlier Event: The narrator being defensive about his sanity at the beginning of the story.
Explanation: When he talks about madness at the beginning of the story it is a mirror for the end of the story, and the stress of madness in the beginning tells us it’s important, so we expect it to come back.
Later Event: The narrator's hallucination of the heartbeat of the Old Man makes the narrator go insane and expose himself.
Earlier Event: The title “The Tell-Tale Heart”.
Explanation: The earlier event foreshadows the later event because the heartbeat of the Old Man that led to the narrator being exposed comes from the Old Man's heart, which is described as tell-tale in the title.
Later Event: The narrator being very nervous about being caught or suspected.
Earlier Event: The narrator stating that he had been nervous in the first sentence.
Explanation: The earlier event foreshadows the later event because the earlier event reflects on how paranoid and nervous the narrator was towards the middle and end of the story.
Characterize the narrator in "the Tell Tale Heart". Identify at least three characteristics that the narrator has. Give examples of each of these characteristics, and explain how each example shows the characteristics you have identified.
Characteristic: Paranoid
Example: He excessively worries about being caught by the Old Man, as shown by him opening the Old Man’s door for an hour, or drawing attention to his crime, as shown by him worrying about the Old Man’s shriek being heard by neighbors and being extremely careful because of this worry.
Explanation: This shows that he is paranoid because excessively worrying about anything and taking extreme measures to prevent bad outcomes is paranoid behavior.
Characteristic: Delusional
Example: He hallucinates the sound of the Old Man’s heartbeat and goes insane and performs violent acts because of it.
Explanation: This shows that he is delusional because hallucinating anything and going insane and performing violent acts because of it shows he truly believes in something that isn’t real, that being the beating of the Old Man’s Heart, which is a quality of being delusional.
Characteristic: Erratic
Example: He throws his chair and rips out the floorboards.
Explanation: This shows that he is erratic because throwing your chair and ripping out the floorboards from underneath you is unpredictable and unrestrained behavior.
What are the story parts of the Tell-Tale Heart? Indicate the Inciting Incident, the Rising Action, the Climax, and the Falling Action.
Note: Not all stories have Falling Action.
Inciting Action: The narrator is disturbed by the old man’s eye
Rising Action:
1. The narrator kills the old man
2. The narrator dismembers and hides the old man’s body
3. The narrator gets interrogated by policemen
4. The narrator goes insane from guilt
Climax: The narrator digs up the heart of the old man out of the floorboards
There is no falling action; the story ends at the climax.