The Tell-Tale Heart

The inescapability of guilt is arguably the most important theme in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Try as he might, the unreliable narrator is never able to escape his guilty conscience, as manifested by...

The story's exposition is delivered within its first two paragraphs. Here, the narrator provides the background information that we need in order to understand the story—and his character—and this...

The two main symbols in the story are the old man’s eye and the narrator’s own heart. The narrator describes the old man’s eye as a “vulture eye,” associating it with death, as vultures feed on...

In Poe's celebrated short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," there is an abundance of evidence to suggest that the narrator is unreliable. From the start of the story, the narrator's sanity is called...

Metaphors are authorial tools to highlight similarities between two things that cannot be literally compared. Similes are a subset of metaphors that specifically use "like" or "as" to make that...

The narrator waits until the eighth night to commit the murder of the old man because the old man's eyes were closed on the first seven nights. The narrator says that he creeps into the old man's...

"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe of course features an unreliable first person narrator who commits a crime that he feels compelled to confess at the end of the tale. We are presented with...

In Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the old man's "vulture eye" doesn't symbolize the window of the soul of the old man whose eye it is, as might be expected, but...

In Poe's celebrated short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the unnamed narrator attempts to convince the audience of his sanity as he elaborates on his brutal crime. In the first paragraph of the...

The narrator himself isn't entirely sure why he killed the old man. In fact, he begins by admitting that he isn't sure "how first the idea entered [his] brain." He goes on to concede that he loved...

One of the first pieces of evidence that indicates that the unnamed narrator is insane is his obsession with the old man's "vulture" eye. The narrator explains his reasoning by saying, Object...

The point of view of this story is first person objective. This means that the narrator is a participant in the story and uses the first person pronoun "I." The "objective" portion of the label...

In Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator believes, and wants the reader to believe, that he's not mad because he so perfectly calculated and carried out every...

The beating heart is the manifestation of the narrator's guilt. He leads the police around with such an easy, open manner that they do not suspect him of the murder. He even has them sit in the...

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the old man is murdered by the narrator. This happens early in the story and the murder is premeditated, meaning that the narrator planned it. The motivation for the...

Personification is the literary device in which inanimate objects, ideas, and animals are given human attributes. Throughout the short story "The Tale-Tell Heart," Edgar Allan Poe uses...

Two traits of the narrator are insanity and paranoia. That the narrator is insane is very clear. You can tell he is insane because he thinks that his roommate has an evil eye. Then he kills him....

The overarching sense of anxiety and nervousness characterizes the tone and mood in the atmosphere of "The Tell-Tale Heart." The narrator begins the story by trying to convince the reader that he...

There are several conflicts in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart." Let's examine them: The first conflict is both external and internal. The narrator begins the story by asking the...

There is insanity, and there is criminal insanity. The narrator of this story is clearly delusional, having hallucinations, and out of touch with reality as we understand it. He tries to explain...

Arguably, the main idea of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is that when you commit a crime, like murder, you cannot escape your guilty conscience, no matter what the circumstances or your state of mind. Take...

Much of the effectiveness of Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," is a result of the many examples of irony in the story. It is ironic, first of all, that the narrator goes to...

This question has already been asked and answered many times here on eNotes. Here is a comprehensive link for you: http://www.enotes.com/tell-tale-heart/q-and-a/tags/setting

When the mentally unstable narrator is about to kill the old man with the "Evil Eye," the old man lets out a loud shriek before the narrator throws him to the ground and suffocates him. The...

I agree with ghalam--sometimes we do literature a disservice by looking for deep symbolic meaning behind every door and under every rock (floor board if you preferJ). The beating of the heart has...

The mood is also, as is true in many of Poe's story, one of suspense. The night time observance of the old man, the murder, and the interview with the police are all seasons that rely upon the...

The title "A Tell-Tale Heart" refers to the constant sound of the heart beat that the narrator hears after he has murdered the old man. The heart beat basically comes from the narrator's...

The opening paragraph foreshadows the murder by letting you know that the narrator is mad. Foreshadowing is when the author gives hints early in a story to something that will happen later....

The main difficulty in answering this question is that, as currerbell16 points out, the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe is rather clearly not sane. In fact, the very efforts by...

The central conflict in this story exists between the narrator and nature. It is death that he fears and tries to avoid, even though death is natural. He admits that he has no motive for killing...

In "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator provides little real evidence to support his claim that he is not mad, which only serves to convince the reader that he is. In fact, Poe...

The reference to a vulture's eye is found early in "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. The narrator tells us that he is nervous, mad (insane), upset--and yet quite calm. He starts to explain...

The narrator invites the officers who have come to investigate the cry his neighbors heard to sit directly over the spot where he has buried the corpse of the old man, his victim. Before long,...

His protestations aside – “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? . . . How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how...

The conflict in this story is between the narrator and nature. It isn't the old man he conflicts with; it's the man's "vulture eye." It is likely that the "film" over the old man's eye is caused by...

The narrator is clearly guilty of murder but what is important is that he considers himself sane. The purpose of him narrating the story is to tell the reader of his sanity as indicated by his...

The plot is about a man who wants to murder another man but doesn't want to be caught and punished. We have to assume that he intends to commit a perfect crime, even though the narrator does not...

One word to describe the narrator is "nervous." The narrator admits this in the first sentence. He even claims he is "diseased" but adds that his disease is not madness; rather, it is something...

The narrator has an internal conflict of which he seems consciously unaware. He believes that his conflict is with the old man's "vulture" eye, for he says that he has no other motive to kill him....

Personification is a literary device in which the author attributes human characteristics and features to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals. Personification allows the reader to connect and...

In Poe's classic short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the unreliable narrator never explicitly states his relationship with the old man, which is open to interpretation. While one could argue that...

The central theme of Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Tell-Tale Heart is ironic. The opening paragraph features the story's narrator vigorously objecting to any suggestion that his mental state is...

Verbal irony is when the narrator says something that contradicts their true feelings or intentions. Essentially, verbal irony is when a statement has an underlying meaning that contrasts with its...

Edgar Allan Poe explores the themes of guilt, madness, and delusion throughout his short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" and offers the reader a unique insight into the mind of a maniac who has a...

Imagery involves an appeal to the senses, and makes description more vivid to a reader's imagination. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Edgar Allan Poe reconstructs a murder and its aftermath from the...

The main purpose of a thesis statement is to set out one's argument right at the very beginning of an essay, dissertation, or research paper. To that end, it must give the reader some idea of what...

I'll pick words and phrases that are repeated throughout "The Tell-Tale Heart." The narrator, very early on in the story, tries to establish his sanity. In fact, the narrator reminds the reader...

Near the end of the story, it appears that the narrator is going to get away with his crime of murdering the old man. He is welcoming to the police and never loses his cool as they question him and...

Edgar Allan Poe encountered the deaths of close loved ones at an early age. Poe’s mother died when he was only three years old, and his father left Poe and his siblings. As a consequence, the...

The foreshadowing in Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart begins with the title, although the narrator makes no reference to the old man's titular heart until well past halfway through the story....