The Tell Tale

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a famous short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe.
He first published the story in January 1843, in the short-lived Pioneer magazine. "Tell-Tale" is about a nameless man who kills an old man for a really strange reason, which we won't give away here. The nameless man tells the story of the murder to prove he is not insane. Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts to actors Elizabeth and David Poe, both of whom died before Poe's second birthday. Shortly thereafter, Poe moved to Virginia to live with the childless couple John and Frances Allan. His biography has fascinated scholars and readers for a long time, and nobody can quite pin him down. Many scholars agree that he was a heavy drinker and was addicted to the drug laudanum. There is much gossip, speculation, and fabrication regarding the man's death, but he probably passed away as a result of drug and alcoholrelated complications. He died October 13, 1849, at Church Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland (source). Poe believed that a perfect story should be readable in one sitting, that it should be a tightly controlled, highly compressed narrative that hit on topics to which everybody can relate. Weighing in at ten precise paragraphs, "Tell-Tale" is an excellent example of Poe's theory of writing. For more, check out his essay "Philosophy of Composition."
Encircle the letter of the choice that best answers the question. 1. What does the Villainous Narrator strongly want readers to believe? A. He is innocent. B. The old man was cruel to him. C. He is not insane. D. The police picked on him unfairly. 2. What does the Villainous Narrator despise about the old man? A. his teeth B. his eye C. his bad breath D. his attitude 3. What does the task refer to when the Narrator says, So I set about the task? A. bringing the Old Man tea B. covering up the Old Mans eye C. scaring the Old Man with a bright light D. killing the Old Man 4. Which of the following does the Narrator do LAST? A. He sneaks into the Old Mans bedroom. B. He hears the Old Mans heart. C. He sees the Old Mans eye. D. He shines his lantern. 5. How did the police know to come to the Old Mans house? A. They were passing by and heard a scream. B. Neighbors heard a scream and called. C. They had a feeling something was wrong in the house. D. The Villainous Narrator called them. 6. When the police first arrive, how does the Narrator feel? A. surprised B. confident C. worried D. annoyed 7. At the end of the play, the sound the Villainous Narrator hears could be any of the following EXCEPT: A. the Old Mans heart continuing to beat. B. his own heartbeat. C. his imagination. D. his guilty conscience. 8. One of the things Edgar Allan Poe is famous for is A. stories with happy endings. B. pet stories. C. science-fiction stories. D. horror stories. 9. In The Tell-Tale Heart, why does a neighbor call the police to the house? A. He heard a shriek. B. He heard a loud, repetitive thumping. C. He saw the murder through a window. D. He saw the murder in a dream. 10. Where does the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart hide the old man's body? A. in a grave in the backyard B. in a closet C. under a pile of blankets D. under the floorboards
The Tell-Tale Heart Summary A nameless person explains that he is and was extremely nervous, but is not and was not insane. Rather, the narrator has a "disease" which makes all his senses, especially his hearing, very sensitive. To prove that he isn't insane, the narrator shares an event from his past. The narrator has an idea that he can't shake. He loves the old man and has nothing against him. Excepthis horrible eye, which is "pale blue [] with a film over it" (2). The narrator hates the eye and decides to kill the old man to be free of it. To that end, the narrator goes to the old man's room every night at 12am, for seven days. Each night the narrator opens the man's door and puts in a lantern (the kind they don't make anymore, with panels that can be adjusted to release more or less light). After the lantern, the narrator puts his head through the doorway, extremely slowly, and then opens the lantern so a tiny beam of light shines on the old man's eye. Each night the old man doesn't open his eye, so the narrator feels that he can't kill him. On the eighth night, the old man hears the narrator at the door and wakes up. The narrator hangs out there in the dark for a long time, then, with a scream, plunges into the totally dark room, opening the lantern, and shining light on the old man's eye. The narrator drags the old man, who has only screamed once, off the bed, and then pulls the bed on top of the man. When the narrator hears the man's heart stop beating, he removes the bed and checks to make sure the old man is really dead, which he is. So the narrator cuts him up and hides his remains under the floor. Then three policemen come. A neighbor had heard a scream and called them. The narrator says he screamed while sleeping, and claims that the old man is out of town. After convincing the cops nothing bad is going down, the narrator brings them into the old man's bedroom, and they all sit down to chat. While they are all shooting the breeze, the narrator starts hearing a terrible ticking noise, which gets louder and louder until the narrator freaks out, confesses, and points the police to the old man's body, stating that the sound is coming from the old man's heart.
Critical Thinking Why does the Villainous Narrator confess to his crime at the end of the story?

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"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a famous short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe.

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