Marcus Alejandro dD.

Garcia Enrichment Activity: Tell-Tale Heart

9-AMETHYST

1. What does the story’s title mean?

Tell-tale means revealing signs of something. In the story, The Tell-Tale Heart refers to the
heartbeat-like sound the narrator constantly hears after he murdered the old man. It
signifies the guilt nagging at his conscience that eventually led him to confess (reveal) his
crime and turn himself in to the police.

2. The two controlling symbols in the story are the eye and the heart. What might these two
symbols represent?

The eye represents an object that constantly watches the narrator, which eventually became
its primary reason to kill the old man. The heart represents the guilt of the narrator. He
hears his own heart once before murdering the old gentleman and once after, mistaking it
for the old man’s heart, while the police were investigating the crime scene.

3. Make a summary of the story.

An unnamed narrator addresses the reader, claiming he is only nervous and not insane. The
narrator defends his sanity as he justified murdering the old man the narrator lived with,
whom he killed out of fear of the latter's vulture pale blue eye. He watched the old man in
his sleep for seven nights, and he would act like everything was fine the following morning.
On the eighth night, he decides to carry out the murder. However, the old man awoke.
While lying in wait, the narrator began to hear a dull heartbeat-like sound, which he
believed was coming from the old man. He then attacked and killed the old man making sure
to be quiet. He dismembered the corpse and hid the pieces beneath the bedroom
floorboards, taking care not to leave a single drop of blood on the floor. The narrator later
heard knocking at the street door and saw the police at the front door. A neighbor reported
hearing a shriek during the night and suspected something was afoul.

Confident they would find no evidence of foul play, the narrator invited the police in and
showed them around. He even led them to the old man’s bedroom, brought in chairs, and
placed his chair exactly atop where he hid the corpse. While chatting with the police, he
began hearing from the floorboards a heartbeat-like sound he believed to be that of the old
man’s. He starts to panic, afraid the police, too, could hear the sound and know the truth.
Distraught by the sound, he confesses his crime and points the police to where he hid the
body.
Marcus Alejandro dD. Garcia Enrichment Activity: Tell-Tale Heart
9-AMETHYST