Home > The Tell-Tale Heart Summary & Study Guide > The Tell-Tale Heart Group > Discussion Board

How might a reader today react to this story? 

I think that today's readers are more desensitized to gore and horror. When Poe wrote "The Tell Tale Heart", the general population was not exposed to dismemberment like that on a regular basis. Poe's contemporary audience had never seen "Saw". It's a shame, but I really think that a contemporary audience is not as shocked by the story as audiences in the past.

I know that when I read this with my students, they go crazy---they love it! It seems that gore and chopping up bodies and burying them is what catches students' attention these days!

So many movies show so many grotesque and gory images that Poe's story seems tame by comparison.

I think that students definitely struggle with the narrator and certainly with the language of the story, which is rather formal and not at all how they talk nowadays.

When they get past the unreliablity of the narrator and the formal, complex language, they easily grasp the story and certainly do enjoy it.

I also read "Hop Frog" by Poe about a crippled dwarf that seeks revenge...kids think that one's great too!

I could see most readers react to this story with delight.  Everyone loves a great thriller, and coupled with a murder and an ingenious criminal, it has all the aspects of a great made-for-tv movie. 

Poe's work is a vehicle for student emotional reaction and a creative springboard for writing. Instructor's can make use of his diligent use of literary devices, which students eagerly  seek to explore due to their  interest in his work.  Poe was not timid about his subject matter and this ignites the student. "The Tell Tale Heart" depicts Poe at his best.  It is interesting to have students crawl through his passages in search of literary devices that can compare to today's contemporary authors.