The Tell-Tale Heart Discussion Questions

"The Tell-Tale Heart"

1. After a careful examination of the narrator's testimony, please think of at least three convincing reasons we could argue the narrator never killed the old man (i.e. that no old man ever died), and that there was no actual murder. Assume there was an old man and simply look for improbabilities and "holes" in his "testimony". Have fun, play a literary (textual) investigator/detective.

• First off, we could argue that the narrator never killed the old man and that there was no actual murder due to the fact that the narrator went into the old man’s room for seven nights in a row and didn’t do anything. When he went into the old man’s room his eye was always closed so “it was impossible to do the work.” Furthermore, if he wanted to kill the old man then why did he take such a long time to go on with the process? Why did he ask the old man how he slept the past night every morning?

• Secondly, we could argue that the narrator never killed the old man and that there was no actual murder due to the fact that the narrator loved the old man. He had a problem with old mans “Evil Eye” not him

The narrator then led the three men all around the house. No evidence of foul play were found. Later, the narrator chatted with the three men. Furthermore, the narrator believed that he heard the old man’s heart beating beneath the floor boards where he hid him after the crime. He felt that the old man’s heart beat grew louder and louder. He asked “why would they not be gone?” He thought he sound proofed the floor well. After questioning the heart beat sound, while still trying to have a conversation with the men, he swung his chair and opened the floor board where the old man’s body laid, but then the sound grew even louder. After praising God, he finally admitted to the crime scene and the shriek that the neighbor