Michelle Dupray

12-8-09

W.R.A.P.: “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

W:
 Who is the main character?: The main character of “The Tell-Tale Heart” is
the narrator.
 What is the main theme?: The main theme of the story is murder and guilty
conscious.
 When does the action take place?: The action takes place at midnight.
 Where does the story take place?: The story takes place at the old man’s
house.
 Why do you think the author wrote this piece of literature?: I think that the
author wrote this piece of literature because he experienced a lot of hard
ships and pain in his life. The author most likely expresses his feelings
through writing, so his writings were very dark.

R:
 Report the literacy style, genre, and themes: The style is poetry/short-story,
the genre is horror, and the themes are murder and guilty consciousness.
 Give an example from the poem to support each of your answers: For
poetry/short-story, the whole story flows as a short -story or poetry. The
genre, horror, is supported by the murder and the reaction of the old man
when he heard someone in his house. The themes are murder and guilty
consciousness because the narrator murdered the old man, and after the
murder, the narrator felt guilt for murdering the man and revealed himself.

A:
 Analyze the tone, imagery, and symbolism used in “The Tell-Tale Heart”.:
The tone of “The Tell-Tale Heart” was very dark. The imagery in the story
was expressed very well, giving you the whole picture on how the setting
looked and showed you everything the characters were doing. The
symbolism was also done very well. For example, the “watch wrapped in
cotton” symbolized the “beating heart” of his conscious.
 Give examples from the poem to support your answer for each: The tone of
the story was very dark because of the murder and the way his guilty
conscious felt. The imagery in the story was expressed very well because it
described the way different objects and things looked. An example is that it
expressed how the eye looked with the film over it, how the watch sounded
when wrapped in cotton, and how the narrator acted when inside the old
man’s house.

P:
 What point-of-view is “The Tell-Tale Heart” being told in?: “The Tell-Tale
Heart” is told in the first person, as well as the third.
 When the narrator speaks he says “I”, making you think the story is in the
third person. But he is really telling his story, so that puts it in the first
person.