tell tale heart
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Tell Tale Heart. By Edgar Allan Poe. Reading Guide Questions. 1 . How does the first sentence create suspense ? 2. Poe talks about TIME throughout the story: • Find three quotations to do with TIME going slowly in the story. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Tell Tale Heart
By Edgar Allan Poe
Reading Guide Questions1. How does the first sentence create suspense?
2. Poe talks about TIME throughout the story:• Find three quotations to do with TIME going slowly in the
story.• Find two quotations to do with TIME going fast within the
story.
3. Repetition: Poe repeats words a great deal in the story i.e. "Very, very
slowly". Write down 3 examples of repetition and explain why Poe
repeats words and phrases.
Reading Guide Questions4. Descriptive Language: Poe describes everything in great detail so
that the reader can imagine the story like a film. He uses lots of
imagery.
• List some of the evil words that he uses: what effect do they have
in the story and on the reader?
• How does he make the "eye" sound disgusting?
• How does he make the death sound disgusting?
5. The story is written in first person narrative by the main character.
• List 3 quotations where the main character directly refers to the
reader. Why does Poe do this?
• Why does Poe have the murderer tell the story?
Reading Guide Questions
6. Find examples of the following literary devices in The Tell Tale Heart:a. Simile-a comparison using “like or as.”
b. personification-giving human characteristics or actions to something that is NOT human.
c. alliteration – consonant sounds that repeat themselves in a line of prose or poetry.
• d. Irony - is the contrast between what is expected or what appears to be and what actually is.
Literary Devices• Personificaton : Example – “Death in approaching him had stalked with his black
shadow before him and enveloped the victim.” [Here, Death is a person.]
• Simile : Examples –”So I opened it–you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily–until at length a single dim ray like the thread of the spider shot out from the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye. [The simile is the comparsion of the ray to the thread of the spider with the use of the word like. “It increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.” [The simile is the comparison of the heartbeat to a drumbeat.] “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness. . . . “[The simile is the comparison of the darkness to pitch.]
• Alliteration Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story. Meanwhile, the hellish tattoo of the heart increased.
Example - “It is the beating of his hideous heart! ”• Irony “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed
him.”