The Tell-Tale Heart

Question 1

Tirade =

Answer 1

complaint, rant, long-winded argument

Question 2

What is an em-dash + in text example

Answer 2

«-»

creates pausing, break, highlight, pacing

«True!- nervous- very, very dreadfully nervous»

Question 3

Explain this opening tirade:

TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been
and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease
had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them.
Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in
the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.
How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how
healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

Answer 3

He tries to justify why he’s not crazy

Question 4

What sort of narrator do we have in the tell-tale heart

Answer 4

Unreliable narrator. He can’t be trusted.

Question 5

Example of grammatical inversion

It’s also a symploce

Answer 5

Object there was none. Passion there was none.

Question 6

Explain this example of physical orthographic violation (writing conventions)

«I think it was his eye! yes it was this!»

Answer 6

Avoiding a full stop (point final), it shows momentum, excitement, rambling

Question 7

Dissimulation =

Answer 7

Hiding the truth, pretense, pretending –> only used for abstract concepts

Question 8

Why does Poe describe the eye as resembling that of a vulture?

Answer 8

It was a pale blue eye with a film over it. —> probably a cataract.

Vulture are predators associated with death, bad omens, scavengers.

Question 9

Why is Evil Eye capitalized (3)

Answer 9

The Evil Eye repels, wards off bad luck.

The narrator is the one who needs to be warded off for he is evil.

Mirrors his mental state.

Question 10

Explain:
«he spoke to him courageously, calling him by name in a hearty tone»

Answer 10

Overconfidence, distorted reality.

He isn’t aware of the hypocrisy of the statement.

Question 11

Epizeuxis + example

Answer 11

Greek word for to fasten together

Steadily, steadily.

Question 12

Explain Death Watches

Answer 12

Beetles that live in walls and eat rot/deterioration

Foreshadows the old man’s death and the narrator’s deteriorating mental state or composure.

Question 13

Explain morality salience

Answer 13

The focus on impending death and the importance of it.

Salience = importance

Question 14

What does the narrator fear the neighbors will hear.

Answer 14

The old man’s heartbeat?

Question 15

«At length it ceased.»

Answer 15

The old man’s heart. —> narrator’s anxiety, narrator’s heartbeat slows down.

Question 16

Explain the effect produced by the brevity of this statement.

«The night waned, and I worked
hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I
cut off the head and the arms and the legs.»

Answer 16

He dismembered the body in a very mundane way. Shows his emotional detachment.

This situation is grotesque bc of the psychological distortion instead of physical.

Signs of schizophrenia?

Question 17

«I bade them search—search well.»

How is this related to the question abt speaking courageously.

Answer 17

His overconfidence betrays him.

His manners is allegedly convincing, but clearly the cops stick around.

Question 18

Explain the ending of the Tell-Tale Heart

Answer 18

His own anxiety finally overwhelmed him. He thinks he hears the old man’s heartbeat, but it’s his.