Name: MS.

PARK ANSWER KEY Date: 7/30/2017

Edgar Allan Poes The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart

Story Classification and Literary Devices T-Chart

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe: https://poestories.com/read/telltaleheart

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe: https://poestories.com/read/raven
To help with finding literary devices and definitions: https://literarydevices.net/

INSTRUCTIONS
INDIVIDUAL
Under Questions, answer each question with 1-2 complete sentences for both sections.
PAIRS
With your partner (previously assigned), under Literary Devices, provide at least 3 literary devices with text examples for both sections (use the websites
above to write your findings).
CLASSROOM
These answers will be shared in class discussions (we will be discussing this chart for both stories), so provide accurate in-text citation and reasoning.
Your chart will be graded on correct citation, text evidence, reasonable explanation of evidence, and completion of the chart.

Questions The Raven The Tell-Tale Heart

Poes The Raven illustrates an eerie narrative between the Poes The tell-Tale Heart provides a horrific tale of a narrator
What is the main point narrator, the raven, and the dead Lenore; the narrator is haunted who tries to persuade his readers the reasons for killing the old
of this story? and driven insane by the birds tapping and spoken line man with a vulture-eye as a just cause.
Nevermore.

Poe explores the nature of grief, depression, and loneliness, and Poe highlights the concepts of time, death, and human
What is the main theme how the narrator struggles to cope with losing his love. conscience.
of this story?

The narrator aims to find meaning of his life situation by The narrator tries to convince his readers that his endeavors of
What is the narrators providing questions for the raven to answer; despite his pleas the removing the old man from life were appropriate; how the
objective in the story? narrator is given the same reply. narrator was able to complete the action in a clean, unnoticeable
way is illustrated (by the narrator) as clever.
Name: MS. PARK ANSWER KEY
Literary Devices The Raven (Provide Line #)
Allusion: Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my
What are possible chamber door/ Perched, and sat, and nothing more (41-
literary devices within 42).
this story? Explain its Since an allusion is an expression to call something to mind
significance after without explanation (a passing reference), this quotation
providing text evidence. shows the readers a brief detail more about the raven than
the narrator.
Assonance: And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each
purple curtain (13). while I pondered weak and weary
(1).
This quotation provides a repetition of vowel sounds to
create internal rhyming; it illustrates the narrators feeble
mind on his current living situation.
Internal rhyme: Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had
sought to borrow (9).
An internal rhyme, in this case, adds somber tone to the
poem.
Simile: And his eyes have all the seeming of a demons that
is dreaming (105). Suddenly there came a tapping, as of
someone gently rapping (3-4).
These quotations provide a small illustration of how the
narrator describes the raven; it is evident that the narrator is
magnifying the horror of such a bird.
Metaphor: To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my
bosoms core (74). And each separate dying ember wrought
its ghost upon the floor (8).
As this quotation is written as a figure of speech, it provides
the reader a more closer, disturbing illustration of what the
narrator sees in his home.
Onomatopoeia: While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly
there came a tapping (3). And so faintly you came tapping,
tapping at my chamber door (22).
The sounds in these lines provide insight of the disturbing
noises that the narrator hears in his home.
Personification: But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid
Date: 7/30/2017
The Tell-Tale Heart (Provide Paragraph #)
Repetition: That no human eyenot even hiscould have
detected anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out
no stain of any kindno blood-spot whatever (13).
The word no is consistently used to steer the reader away
from the narrators true nature. As the atrocious nature of
the narrators actions is deviated from view, the narrator is
trying to manipulate the reader into concentrating on his
efforts of his murder remaining clean than its actual
implications.
Symbolism: Watch A watchs minute hand moves more
quickly than did mine (4). just as I have done, night after
night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall (6). such
as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton (10). much
such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton)
(17).
The word watch implicates the symbolic nature of time,
life, and the sound of what made the narrator drive into
insanity.
Alliteration: Hearken! And observe how healthilyhow
calmly I can tell you the whole story (1). here, here! it is
the beating of his hideous heart! (18).
This device pinpoints the main objective of what the narrator
is trying to explain to his readers: the hideous heart that
drove him insane.
Simile: So I opened it you cannot imagine how stealthily,
stealthily until, at length a single dim ray, like the thread of
the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the
vulture eye (8).
The comparison between the dim ray and a spiders thread
provides an illustration on the lights sliver.
Irony: I was never kinder to the old man than during the
whole week before I killed him (3).
He was kind to the old man, but his action of killing the man
proves otherwise.
Personification: because Death, in approaching him had
Name: MS. PARK ANSWER KEY Date: 7/30/2017

bust, spoke only/ That one word, as if his soul in that one
word he did outpour (57-58).
The raven is described as emoting human qualities, such as
speaking, which best illustrates how horrific the narrator feels
at that moment.
stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the
victim (7).
Death is personified as a person capable of stalking and
enveloping a human.