Figurative Language The Tell-Tale Heart

personification

"All in vain; because Death, in approaching him, had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim."

simile

"I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton...

analogy

"It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage."

Hyperbole

"Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers--of my sagacity."

simile

"So I opened it...until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of a spider, shot from out the crevice and full upon the vulture eye."

metaphor/idiom

"Yes, he was stone, stone dead."

Simile/hyperbole

A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine.

personification

And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel...

Why do you infer the narrator greets the old man so heartily every morning?

Because the narrator doesn't want the old man to be suspicious

Read the excerpt below. What conclusion can you draw about the narrator? "Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief --oh, no! --it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart." I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me.

He can relate to the old man's terror because of the madness that haunts him.

metaphor

He had the eye of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it.

Read the excerpt below. What can you infer about the narrator? "It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed."

He is very cautious.

Simile

His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness...

hyperbole/repetition

I felt that I must scream or die!--and now--again! hark! louder! louder!

idiom

I saw it with perfect distinctness--all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones...

hyperbole

I thought the heart must burst.

verbal irony

I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.

repetition

It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant.

What does the narrator want people to think about him?

That he suffers from anxiety, but that he is not a crazy man TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?

Read the excerpt below. Which of the following would you not infer about the narrator's character? "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."

The narrator has a life-threatening disease.

Consider the noises the narrator was haunted by at the end of the story. What do you infer they could represent?

The narrator's guilt

Why do you infer the narrator finally admitted to his crime?

The noises he was hearing were driving him insane and he couldn't take it.

What does the use of hyperbole accomplish in The Tell-Tale Heart

The use of hyperbole in The Tell-Tale Heart gives the reader an idea of what the narrator is experiencing through the use of exaggeration.

Idiom

Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees--very gradually--I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

Read the excerpt below. What can you infer the meaning of the word deputed is? "A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises."

appointed

Unreliable narrators

are typically the storytellers who speak in first person. They are unreliable because you only hear their point of view, it is unknown if they are telling what really happened.

Read the excerpt below. What is the narrator's tone? "And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept." boldly, courageously, hearty, inquiring

confident

Read the excerpt below. What can you infer the meaning of the word audacity is? "I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim."

daring

The narrator admits

due to his powerful sense of hearing "he can hear all things in the heaven and in the earth [and] many things in hell" (1). So, he isn't gripping reality, due in part to a sick mind, and in another part to a sick body.

Narrator's thoughts on the old man being crazy

just a reflection of his own experience

Read the excerpt below. What is the mood of the passage? "I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself --"It is nothing but the wind in the chimney --it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or "It is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp." Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions: but he had found all in vain. All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel --although he neither saw nor heard --to feel the presence of my head within the room."

terrifying/scary

Read the excerpt below. What can you infer the meaning of the word vexed is? "And this I did for seven long nights --every night just at midnight --but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye."

troubled