The Tell-Tale Heart

Edgar Allan Poe

What Makes a Great Horror Story?

About the Setting of “The Tell-Tale

Heart”

• PLACE:– The Narrator’s house

• TIME:– Several nights

Cultural Background

• “The Evil Eye”– Many cultures believe in “The Evil Eye”—the

ability of one person to harm other people simply by looking at them in a particular way.

MOOD

What’s the FEELING

of a piece of writing?

MOOD cont. • Writers hope to stir readers’ emotions with their

words. They know emotions can produce the mood or feeling of a piece of writing.

• The setting (time and place) can affect the mood as can descriptive words, dialogue, imagery, sounds, rhythms and symbolism.

• Symbolism: Using symbols (something that stands for something else) to make a statement– The black crow circling overhead could be

a symbol of danger to come.

MOOD EXAMPLE

• What descriptive details help create the mood?

“When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little—a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it—you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily—until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of a spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye.”

TONE• Tone is the attitude the writer takes toward a

subject/Or the narrator’s attitude toward a subject. The language and details the writer chooses to describe the characters, setting, and events help to create the tone.

• The punctuation, capitalization, and formatting can all play a role into the author’s TONE.

• The tone might be serious, sarcastic, playful, or objective, depending on the author’s purpose. – If the author’s purpose is TO INFORM, then the tone

might be serious.– If the author’s purpose is TO ENTERTAIN, then the

tone might be lighter and more playful.

TONESarcastic Tone

Playful Tone

Serious ToneObjective Tone

TONE EXAMPLE• What attitude does Poe express about the

speaker in the first tone excerpt?

“True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.”