Tell Tale Heart

By Edgar Allan Poe

Reading Guide Questions1. How does the first sentence create suspense?

2. Poe talks about TIME throughout the story:• Find three quotations to do with TIME going slowly in the

story.• Find two quotations to do with TIME going fast within the

story.

3. Repetition: Poe repeats words a great deal in the story i.e. "Very, very

slowly". Write down 3 examples of repetition and explain why Poe

repeats words and phrases.

Reading Guide Questions4. Descriptive Language: Poe describes everything in great detail so

that the reader can imagine the story like a film. He uses lots of

imagery.

• List some of the evil words that he uses: what effect do they have

in the story and on the reader?

• How does he make the "eye" sound disgusting?

• How does he make the death sound disgusting?

5. The story is written in first person narrative by the main character.

• List 3 quotations where the main character directly refers to the

reader. Why does Poe do this?

• Why does Poe have the murderer tell the story?

Reading Guide Questions

6. Find examples of the following literary devices in The Tell Tale Heart:a. Simile-a comparison using “like or as.”

b. personification-giving human characteristics or actions to something that is NOT human.

c. alliteration – consonant sounds that repeat themselves in a line of prose or poetry.

• d. Irony - is the contrast between what is expected or what appears to be and what actually is.

Literary Devices• Personificaton : Example – “Death in approaching him had stalked with his black

shadow before him and enveloped the victim.” [Here, Death is a person.]

• Simile : Examples –”So I opened it–you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily–until at length a single dim ray like the thread of the spider shot out from the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye. [The simile is the comparsion of the ray to the thread of the spider with the use of the word like.  “It increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.” [The simile is the comparison of the heartbeat to a drumbeat.]   “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness. . . . “[The simile is the comparison of the darkness to pitch.]

• Alliteration  Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.  Meanwhile, the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. 

Example - “It is the beating of his hideous heart! ”• Irony  “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed

him.”