(English+9+Honors,+section+4)+Analyzing+a+narrative--The+Tell-Tale+Heart

=**Analyzing a narrative** (English 9 Honors, section 4)**--"The Tell-Tale Heart"**=


 * In the appropriate spot below, post your findings and your comments and insights on your assigned element. For example, if you have "Setting," describe the setting, using textual evidence to support your thoughts. **

=== **//Example of a post (__made-up__, in this case about the setting)://** ===
 * The story is set in South America--the narrator says so: "In South America did we pass our time" (page 2), and on page 7 Miguel talks about "going to Lima" which is a city in Peru. **

**Setting (Josie Barton, Caroline Ford, Emily Snellings):**
General Setting: Specific Setting: Principal setting: The awareness of the place affected the way I read the story because I felt that it was creepier that he was sneaking into his personal room at midnight. This makes it creepier because people naturally associate darkness with danger and fear because there is no way to know what’s going on in the darkness.
 * Earth
 * ‍Town or city: "A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night." (4)‍
 * Outside the old man’s door: “I turned the latch of his door and opened it.” (1)
 * In the old man’s room: “I went boldly into the chamber.” (2)
 * Street door: “I went down to open it with a light heart.” (4)
 * Under the planks of the floor: “I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings.” (4)
 * In the old man’s room: “I went boldly into the chamber.” (2)

General Time: Specific Time: The awareness of the time affected the way I read the story because since I knew that they were using lanterns I pictured it in older times and it made it more suspenseful and scary because it all happened in the dark at night. We unknowingly match together the feeling of fear and darkness because the unknown is always scary to us.
 * Around the 1800s because he uses a lantern: “I put in a dark lantern all closed.”(1)
 * Midnight: “And every night about midnight I turned the latch on his door.” (1)
 * Early in the morning: “It was four o’clock- still dark as midnight.”(4)

**Character(s) (Catherine Daymude, Aaliyah Milord, Lauren Toman):**
Who are the characters in the story?

- The old man, the narrator (murderer), the neighbors and the officers

Which characters are relatively //round?// Which are relatively //flat?//

- The old man and officers are relatively flat throughout the story

- The narrator is round throughout the story - The narrator loved the old man but then kills him because of the eye.

What are the qualities or characteristics of the characters?

- The old man is defenseless, vulnerable and innocent because he is blind; he is also rich

◦ “For his gold I had no desire” (1)
 * “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- pale blue eye, with film over it” (1)
 * “ For the shutters were closed fastened, through fear of robbers” (2)

- The narrator is a madman, smart, and always self assuring


 * “First of all I dismembered the Corpse” “ No blood- spot” (4)
 * “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for concealing the body” (4).

Are any of the characters ambiguous, hard to define?

- The police officers and the neighbors are hard to define because there isn’t much information given on them.

What change do you see in the round or dynamic characters?

- - The narrator seemed calm and confident in the beginning but as the story went on he grew more mad since he thought others could hear the heartbeat.

**Plot (Kendall Bennett, Courtney Hammond, Hailey Thompson):**
1) The narrator tells us about how he does not like the evil eye of the old man saying, "One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture...I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever." (p.1) He fears the eye and sees it as his enemy. (p.1) He decides that he will set out to kill it (and the old man). The murderer spends a week carefully watching the old man and plotting his kill. On the eighth night the man comes into the old mans room and shines a light on his evil eye and throws him under the bed killing him. He butchered his body and stuffed it under the floorboards. He is then questioned by police, and while doing so, he believes he hears the ticking of the old man’s heart. He feels the police hear it too and are mocking him therefore he turns himself in.

2) The main character, even though he may be evil, is the murderer because we are in his point of view and we do not have a chance to get to know any of the other characters as well as we do the murderer. 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The protagonist’s goal is to “kill the evil eye” of the blind old man. He screams and arouses the neighbors but he easily fools the police with his suavity letting him easily fix this conflict. The main conflict, however, is the increased paranoia the murderer has, causing him to surrender himself to the police thinking, "...They suspected!-they knew!-they were making a mockery of my horror!...anything was more tolerable than this derision" (p.5)

**Theme (Nicole Durst, Maddie Seibert, Chelsea Zoller):**
Mental illness can result, if they are severe enough, to a life of crime and sadness. They can cause people to do things they wouldn't normally do and rationalize those actions as well. In the Tell Tale Heart the narrator is stricken with an unknown disease but it could possibly be a strange mix of paranoia and schizophrenia. His mental illness drives him to kill a man that he admittedly liked, just because the old man had a cataract. Not only do mental illness change people into whole new, and worse, people but, they also believe that the diseases are a good thing. "The disease has sharpened my senses- not destroyed- not dulled them." (1). The narrator only thinks his senses are sharpened because he's hearing voices and sounds that really aren't there, they are in his head because of the mental illness. Which of the statements seems best to match your understanding of the story? Insanity takes control of mental state and causes a person to become paranoid about everything that occurs: " 'Villians!' I shrieked, 'dissemble no more! I admit the deed! - tear up the planks! - here, here! - it is the beating of his hideous heart!' " (5). He claimed he could hear things no other human being could hear. "The disease sharpened my senses - not destroyed - not dulled the,. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in heaven and in earth. I heard many things in hell" (1).

**Symbolism (Julia Durst, Talia Momon, Ileana Zeissner):**

 * The Eye: A barrier between the narrator and the old man because the narrator says, "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me... I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold." (page 1) If it was not for the eye, there would be no reason for the narrator to kill the old man.


 * The Death Watches: symbolizes both the old man's and the narrator's fear. "He was still sitting up in the bed, listening- hearkening to the death watches in the wall, just as I have done night after night... His fears had been ever since growing upon him." (page 2)
 * The Death Watches: symbolizes both the old man's and the narrator's fear. "He was still sitting up in the bed, listening- hearkening to the death watches in the wall, just as I have done night after night... His fears had been ever since growing upon him." (page 2)


 * The tattoo: It was literally the beat of the old man’s heart, and figuratively. "The hellish tattoo of the heart increased," (page 3) and would be forever ingrained in his head. It was literally and figuratively a tattoo.


 * The Watch in the Cotton: the muffled heartbeat of the man. Since the cotton muffles the watch, the narrator is trying to muffle the sound of the old man’s heartbeat; "I knew that sound to well, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart." (page 3)


 * <range type="comment" id="938260">The Old Man’s Heartbeat : represented the narrator’s insanity because it wasn’t as loud as he imagined it to be: "But the beating grew louder, louder. I thought the heart must burst." (page 3) The sound of the heartbeat existed only in his head.