Analyzing+a+Narrative+-+The+Tell-Tale+Heart

Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 in Massachusetts, the son of two stage actors. Both of his parents died before he turned three, possibly explaining the fascination with death present in his work. His father abandoned the family shortly before he died in 1811, and months later his mother died of tuberculosis, often called the red death because the bacterial infection in the lungs causes victims to repeatedly cough up blood. However, Poe, as a teenager who enjoyed relating fanciful tales, often told the story that his stage actor parents died in a theater fire. Taken in by a foster family in Virginia, Poe eventually entered the University of Virginia to study Latin and poetry. Angered by Poe’s gambling debts, his foster father refused to help him financially. Poe dropped out of school, entered the army, and eventually was admitted to West Point Academy. Dismissed from the Academy after one year, Poe moved in with his aunt in 1831 and married her daughter, his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, in 1836. The couple moved to New York where Poe began his career as a writer. After his wife Virginia died of tuberculosis at age 24, Poe suffered a deep depression and began drinking heavily. Two years later in 1849, he was found unconscious in a street in Baltimore, Maryland and died later in the hospital. He was only forty years old. Controversy surrounds the cause of his death: there are conflicting reports that he died of alcoholism, suicide, murder, or various diseases. **Setting: (Ben, Jamey, Patrick)** Poe is very vague about where he is, but there are many possible settings. He could be talking to himself, to a doctor in a mental hospital, to a jail guard, or someone in a mad house; it’s very un-clear. His tale occurs in a house with several residents, particularly in the old man’s living quarters. Poe doesn’t mention the exact place where the house is, but it gets tied into the story as you read so it makes you think a lot more about what is happening in the story and you consider the surroundings to figure out clues. In this story you aren’t all that aware of time either. The general time period would be in the late 1800’s or at least the book was written in that time period. The specific time would be on the eighth night starting at midnight. If you know what time it was it could affect how you look at the story, because if it had taken place in the day, it wouldn’t have been spine-chilling or creepy. **Character(s): (Ian, Tal, Alex)** 1. The characters in the story are the murderer, the old man, the police officers. 2. The narrator is a relatively flat character, while the police officers and the old man are very flat characters. 3. The old man is a very nervous and an excitable character, while the narrator thinks he is wise and confident. 4. The narrator and the police officers are characters that are hard to define because we are only told about them by the narrator and are not explained thoroughly in the story. 5. The change is that the old man is murdered at the end of the story. The other change is that the murder gives everything, and exposes himself to the police officers of the crime he committed. The narrator attempts to brag to the reader about h ow he carefully does things and how he pays attention to every detail up until seconds before the actual murder. Characters play an important role in The Tell Tale Heart. The characters in the story are the narrator, the old man, and the police officers. Some characters are 'round' and some are 'flat'. The narrator is a relatively flat character, while the police officers and the old man are very flat characters. All the characters have different qualities and characteristics. The old man is a very nervous and an excitable character, while the narrator thinks he is very wise and he is confident. However, t he narrator and the police officers are characters that are hard to define because we are only told about them by the narrator and are not explained thoroughly in the story. There are some changes in the round and dynamic characters. The first change is that the old man is murdered at the end of the story. The other change is that the murderer gives everything up, and exposes himself to the police officers of the crime he committed after he thought he would never get caught. **Plot: (Jack M., Warner, John)** The man is conversing with another person that is possibly in the room with him. He is insisting that he is not mad. The man is mad at the Vulture Eye that is on the Old Man. This causes the man to creep in on the Old Man every night at midnight for seven nights wondering how he can plot to kill the Old Man. On the eighth night, the man creeps in only to find the Old Man awake and alert sitting up in bed. Eventually, the Old Man falls back asleep. The man goes in, flips the bed over the Old Man and kills him. He chops up the body and stores it under the floorboard. A few hours later, the police arrive and search the place with the man acting like nothing ever happened. He invites the officers to sit down and chat, but eventually, t he guilt starts eating away at him and he thinks the police are mocking him. After a while, h e finally breaks and confesses that he killed the man. The mad man was the protagonist because he is the one telling the story and shared his thoughts and feelings with the reader. He becomes obsessed with this eye of the old man. He has to compete with his conscience and goes crazy. **Theme: (Sean, Malik, Owen)** Part 1: Guilt - While the man committed the act he felt no immediate guilt for what he had done; however once the gravity of the crime he had committed set in, the man was overwhelmed with the guilt of what he had done. Paranoia - As the story develops it begins to become clear that the man narrating the tale, is possessed with some kind of disease, where he believes everyone is against him, this is shown through his acute senses and his hearing of the beating heart. Motivation - The man, obviously enveloped in rage, admitted that he had no motive except for the man's vulture eye. Anger - The man possessed an anger that was deeper down than we could know and this anger was built up inside and he chose the vulture eye to target his anger at. Part 2:  The narrator tells the reader about how he had been so methodical and with out any error sneaking into the old man's room just to get a glance at his eye. Then after a week of doing this, the narrator tries to go in the room again but this time he accidentally bumps his lamp and the old man wakes. As the narrator stood there by the door for over an hour he could still hear the old man was awake. The narrator began to hear a sound of a heart beat believing that it was the old man's and it began to grow louder and louder. Then the narrator rushed into the room through the man off the bed and then threw the bed on top of the man until he could no longer hear the sound of the old man's beating heart. Then when officials come to check out what happens he lets them in with open arms but soon feels guilt. He belie ves he can still hear the heart beating and turns himself in by showing the police officers because he cannot take it any more. Through out the story, the narrator developes motivation to murder the old man. This motivation, which the narrarator is unable to explain, was most likely obtained from many emotions which the narrorator held inside of himself, that in turn expressed themselves through anrgy which was directed not at the man but his evil eye. **Symbolism: (Luke, Sam, Jack P.)** Vulture eye- this represents anger and rage the narrator got mad at the old man for having the eye even though the old man had done anything wrong to the narrator Clock in cotton- this represents that time was ticking down until his guilt took over and he turned himself in. The deathwatches- this represents the time for the old man ticking down until the narrator killed him with his bed. Old Man's Heart- The old man's heart when he is dead represents the guilt the narrator realizes after he has "done the deed". He starts to realize that he killed the old man who he love and the old man had done nothing wrong and the narrator realizes that he killed an innocent person, so the narrators mind start to make him think that the heart is still beating and he turns himself in. The symbolism in the " Tell Tale Heart " is very important in the way the story is understood, which gives this story deep meaning. The first symbol is the old man's vulture eye. The eye represents the anger in the narrator when he sees the eye. Another important symbol in the short story is the ticking of clock in cotton, this represents that time was ticking down from when he committed the murder to when he confessed. Another symbol are the deathwatches. The Deathwatches represent the time for the old man's life down until the narrator killed him with his bed.The beating of the old man's heart when he died represents the guilt the narrator realizes after he has "done the deed". He starts to realize that he killed a human being that he loved. The older man had never wronged him. The narrator comes to understand that he killed an innocent person, so the narrator's mind starts to make him think that the heart is still beating and turns himself in.
 * Author: (Mrs. Chesser)**