illustration of a human heart lying on black floorboards

The Tell-Tale Heart

by Edgar Allan Poe

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What are some debate topics related to "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

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Debate topics related to "The Tell-Tale Heart" include questioning the sanity of the narrator, the symbolism of the old man's "vulture" eye, the nature of the sound the narrator hears, and the reason for the narrator's confession. Other topics involve the narrator's hesitation to kill the old man initially and whether the old man suspected the narrator's intentions.

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Do you believe that the narrator is truly mad or is he correct, that he only suffers from nervousness and overly acute senses?

Why is the narrator so afraid of the old man's "vulture" eye? What might it symbolize? What other details in the text would support your interpretation of this symbol?

When the narrator describes the sound that he hears twice, once prior to committing the murder and once after, "a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton," what sound is he describing? Is it the old man's heart or something else?

Why does the narrator confess to murdering the old man? Is it guilt or something else?

The narrator is unable to kill the old man on one of the first seven nights when he sneaks into the old man's room, why? Is it because he doesn't really want to do it, or is there some other reason?

Do you think the old man suspects the narrator of plotting against him? The narrator doesn't think so, but his perceptions are not always reliable. If the old man doesn't suspect anything, why wouldn't he just go back to sleep on the night he hears the narrator's lantern click open?

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The main goal of debate or discussion questions is ensuring that they facilitate discussion and keep others interested. One way I have found that is good for that kind of thing is bringing up questions that could lead to a bigger topic within the story, or questions that you could eventually relate to the world. Regarding this particular story and author, it is always interesting to ask not only what things mean within the story, but what they mean about the author as well.

One question that concerns this topic would be: Do you think the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is sane or insane? Does it make the story more enjoyable if he is insane? Why or why not?

Another is: What do the madness of the narrator and his actions say about Poe and his view of the world?

You could also ask: Are the actions of the narrator those of a sane man? Could a deranged man do these things, as the narrator claims they cannot? Could only a deranged man do these things despite what the narrator claims?

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What are the narrator's obsessions in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

The narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" has a number of clear obsessions. For example, throughout his telling of the story the narrator frequently interrupts himself in order to argue that he is sane. It is clear that the narrator is somewhat obsessed with the question of his sanity and also that the narrator is perhaps worried that he isn't sane and is reassuring himself. The narrator is, by his own admission, obsessed with killing the old man. He notes that before he committed the murder he thought about killing the old man day and night and says that the idea "haunted" him. The narrator is also obsessed with the old man's eye which horrifies and frightens him. Every night he creeps into the old man's room and shines a lantern onto his eye hoping to find it open so that he can silence it forever. After the murder, the narrator becomes obsessed with his guilt and the sound of the beating of the old man's heart. Even after the old man has died, the narrator imagines that he can hear the heart beating louder and louder. Ultimately, he becomes so obsessed with this beating that he admits to murdering the old man even though the police don't even realize the old man is dead.

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What is the main theme of "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

Like many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, The Tell-Tale Heart contains more than one theme, including his mortal fear of being buried alive. The most prevalent theme, however, is Guilt.

The nameless narrator speaks of an undefined loathing for the Old Man who lives in his house, and of the Old Man's staring eye, which watches him incessantly. Eventually, the narrator kills the old man in the night and dismembers the body, hiding the corpse beneath the floor. When Police come to investigate a neighbor's report of a scream, the narrator entertains them on the spot, but grows more and more nervous as he imagines the old man's heart still beating below them. Eventually, he works himself into a frenzy and tears up the floorboards himself.

The narrator speaks constantly of his sane state of mind, and yet he himself reveals his perfect crime. In his guilt over killing a man who, he admits, had never wronged him, he mistakes every sound and sight for proof that the police already know and are just toying with him. It is likely that the heartbeat he hears is his own, beating in his ears.

Near the climax, the narrator explains,

Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die!

And scream he does, exposing his crime. While he never denies the crime itself, he denies that the commission of it was in any way immoral. He has taken a life for no purpose but his own satisfaction, yet refuses to understand or accept his guilt even as it undermines his calm.

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