How does the tone of this story contribute to the theme? Use your list of tone words to help you label the tone. Be sure to identify the theme and use two quotes from the story to support.
This short story was a very dark one, but I'd expect nothing less from Edgar Allen Poe. I don't know if his writing can be put in a word. And if it can, I shouldn't be the one to put it in a word. But if I had to choose a word, I would say the story has a gloomy, earnest feel. The main character wanted to tell the story, but he knew he wasn't crazy and he tried to make the reader believe him when he says he isn't a madmen. "If you still think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." (pg. 3) This is not the first time he tries to prove his sanity by saying he thought it out carefully, but further proving that he's crazy. The main character was very earnest in his speak when he was unsure or nervous. And I would call it gloomy for the nature of the subject. It's about a disturbed man killing someone out of discomfort of the other and ultimately turning himself in but not because he was feeling guilty about it because he felt the heart of the victim beating, "Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound-- much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton." -MaryColleen
The theme and tone of this short story by Edgar Allen Poe are connected with a strong bond. Although it is very difficult to capture the story's entire tone in a single word, I would choose the word grim. Throughout the entirety of the story, Poe creates a dark atmosphere that cloaks the setting, casting despair on the tale. This can be seen when Poe writes, "I knew it was a groan of mortal terror... it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well." This dark sense of writing ties in with the story's theme; guilt will get the best of you. The murderer is confident that his twisted ways will go unnoticed, yet he soon begins to hear the heartbeat of his victim. Although this is a rather morbid way of proving it, Poe gets across his point that you cannot live with such guilt in your life; it will get the better of you. The murderer shouts, "I admit the deed! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" Poe shows how the assailant can no longer hold it in, and the truth bursts forth, where it will inevitably come to in any situation.
Caroline M. 2 The theme of the Tell Tale Heart is that even if you get away from something, the guilt that you suffer from can really get to you. If you do something wrong, you will feel shame and regret. The shame, regret, and other feelings can drive you to insanity. The human heart cannot endure the burden of guilt, especially in the case of murder. The tone of the story, like all of Poe's stories, is nervous. “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. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” There is a sense of sadness in Tell Tale because the man is so pathetic. The narrator is so outlandish and brash that his eventual demise leaves us as sad as it is shocking. "Then I heard it. It might have been an ant, a clock. But no. Louder, and still louder. They must hear it, and yet they sit and talk and talk. Of course they must! They know, they do! They're torturing me, watching me, letting it beat so that I... That I... Stop it! Stop it, you devils! Yes, yes, I did it! It's there, under the floor! Oh, stop it! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" This is how the tone of the story contributes to the theme.
The theme of the Tell Tale Heart is how guilt eats away at you until you step up and tell the truth. When you know you do something wrong you get this strange feeling that you should tell someone that you messed up, but like a lot of people they try to hold it in and not inform anyone. The tone in the story was very mischievous and somber. It is interesting how Poe makes the main character commit murder without a problem. In a way it is kind of sadistic and messed up. "Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him." How can a person just kill a person so easily? The tone contributes to the theme as guilt will prevail when you do something wrong.
Jake S. There is an eerie tone throughout the story as the narrator is obsessed with the idea of the old man’s eyes, “a pale-blue, film-covered eye like that of a vulture, that he could not stand” and the “evil eye” causes his blood to run cold. This contributes to the theme of love and hate when the narrator confesses his love for the old man whom he then violently murders and dismembers. The narrator reveals his madness by attempting to separate the person of the old man, whom he loves, from the old man's evil eye,which triggers the narrator's hatred.
This story had a sense of unease. Throughout the entire story, the narrator is trying to convince the reader (and perhaps prove to himself) that he is not crazy, even though he clearly is, "Hearken! and observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story." (1) Possibly because of the guilt eating away at him, the narrator continues, almost desperately, to prove that he is not insane "If you still think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." (3) The tone of the story is grim because the narrator is talking about and treating murder very lightly and in a conversational manner. This is very strange to us as we all know that one of the most horrific and evil actions to commit is murder. It is not some people generally speak about, especially openly. this shows the narrator's psychopathic nature and how unstable is truly is. Skylar S.
The theme of Tell Tale Heart is that sometimes telling a lie can eat you up inside. When you lie about something important to someone, the guilt can drive you to the point where you desperately want to tell them. Unfortunately, many will not because it may damage their relationship with the person, so they simply allow the guilt to build up. "I admit the deed! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" This is the point in the story when the murderer cannot hold down the guilt any longer, and admits it to everyone. "You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him." He felt that he would be able to get away with the murder, but, in the end, it was his own conscious that wouldn't allow him to. Evan S.
As you advance through this story, the story gives off an eerie tone. The man was crazy; despite killing a man, he also stalked him and watched him for the whole week beforehand, "And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it..." But he did not care for the man as a whole, he cared for the "Evil Eye". He could not separate the man from his eye with him being alive so he had to kill him; if he hadn't, he would always have to live in fear of it which had a profound effect on him, "...my blood ran cold...". The love for the man and disdain for the eye shows the reader the true nature of the man's psychotic nature. The theme of the story gives depth to the character's true nature and insight into how one can murder an innocent man for a trivial reason. Jared C. Period: 2
Alla M. Period 2 The theme and the tone are very sad, and not very happy. The main character is called crazy, and he tries to prove it wrong. "Hearken!" he yells to get them to listen. The theme mortality, because it is like a murder mystery. It deals with the fear of dying and death itself. "I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever." so we know who the killer is mostly and sort of why he wants to kill him. Poe writes how the old mans eye bothers the character and makes him nervous. "For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a virtue- a pale blue eye, with a film over it."The theme is mortality because the main character wants to subject the old man to death.
I think that the theme of the story, saddness and frustration, is portrayed through the tone because Poe I think purposely made the story a little disjointed and frustrating, so that we'd really get the feel of the story. I think that part of the theme was to show us how one thing can completely take hold of ones thoughts. The narrator loved the old man, he had no personal problem with him, his only motive for killing him was to get rid of his "evil eye". No matter how much he cared for the old man, he couldn't stand him because of this one thing.
The dark, eerie, and at some points, manic tone that is characteristic of Mr. Poe's writing emphasis's the story's chilling theme. The story is told by an unstable man who tries desperately to convince the reader of his sanity. The most disturbing aspect of this passage is that the man cannot recognize his own thought process nor actions as being deranged. Throughout the entire story, he tries to prove his sanity with explanations such as "If you still think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." (pg. 3) His explanations only prove to deepen the writers understanding of just how demented this man truly is. In the end, it's the narrator's madness that undoes him. Upon murdering his poor victim, the man begins to hear the nonexistent sound of his prey's beating heart, "They're torturing me, watching me, letting it beat so that I... That I... Stop it! Stop it, you devils! Yes, yes, I did it! It's there, under the floor! Oh, stop it! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" The illusion disturbs the man and drives him to confess his actions to the police. Iana West. Period 2
The Tell-Tale Heart is undeniably a masterpiece of horror literature and certainly stands as Poe's most well known story. Not only is Poe's plot macabre, but the use of a first-person narrator effectively deepens the level at which this story unsettles the reader. The narrator is not telling a story, but confessing to a crime; explaining how he did it and why he did it. This gives the story a Gothic theme found in other stories such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but also introduces Poe's spin on it with the addition of a very unreliable narrator.
The narrator doesn't want you to dismiss him as insane, thus he constantly tries to point out the logic behind his actions, giving the story a frantic, entreating tone at times. For instance, the narrator does this as he describes how clever he was for having watched the old man in his sleep, claiming, " Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust [my head] in...It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening...Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this..." The narrator does not trust your opinion of him, though he has faith that you are admiring his thought process as much as he is. He is proud of himself for killing the old man, but ultimately is not free from guilt, as it manifests itself through the hallucination of the old man's heartbeat and caused him to lose control. In this excerpt, the narrator describes his loss of control before his confession of the murder, "I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased...I foamed --I raved --I swore!" The theme of how emotions can overwhelm an individual and warp his or her perception of the world is again one found in Gothic literature. In Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein admits to his paralyzing fear of alienation for being accused of insanity; a fear also identified by the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart. What makes this theme effective is that the reader can use it to exercise their own anxieties of the vulnerability that accompanies a crippling emotion like guilt.
The tone of this story was undeniably dark, as it was all about killing an old man and trying to justify the action, but failing miserably. After stalking the old man, the narrator finally killed him, and was proud because he believed he had pulled off the perfect murder. But he couldn't handle the guilt, so he felt he had no choice but to confess. When he couldn't take it anymore, he told the police, "They're torturing me, watching me, letting it beat so that I... That I... Stop it! Stop it, you devils! Yes, yes, I did it! It's there, under the floor! Oh, stop it! It is the beating of his hideous heart!". He couldn't handle that he had taken a man's life, even if he had justified it to himself, and it also shows his mental instability, which could have lead to the murder in the first place. This story all around has many dark tones, from the mental disorder of the narrator to the murder of an innocent old man, and this is how Poe wanted it to be portrayed. Evan S P2
This short story was a very dark one, but I'd expect nothing less from Edgar Allen Poe. I don't know if his writing can be put in a word. And if it can, I shouldn't be the one to put it in a word. But if I had to choose a word, I would say the story has a gloomy, earnest feel. The main character wanted to tell the story, but he knew he wasn't crazy and he tried to make the reader believe him when he says he isn't a madmen. "If you still think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." (pg. 3) This is not the first time he tries to prove his sanity by saying he thought it out carefully, but further proving that he's crazy. The main character was very earnest in his speak when he was unsure or nervous. And I would call it gloomy for the nature of the subject. It's about a disturbed man killing someone out of discomfort of the other and ultimately turning himself in but not because he was feeling guilty about it because he felt the heart of the victim beating, "Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound-- much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton."
ReplyDelete-MaryColleen
The theme and tone of this short story by Edgar Allen Poe are connected with a strong bond. Although it is very difficult to capture the story's entire tone in a single word, I would choose the word grim. Throughout the entirety of the story, Poe creates a dark atmosphere that cloaks the setting, casting despair on the tale. This can be seen when Poe writes, "I knew it was a groan of mortal terror... it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well." This dark sense of writing ties in with the story's theme; guilt will get the best of you. The murderer is confident that his twisted ways will go unnoticed, yet he soon begins to hear the heartbeat of his victim. Although this is a rather morbid way of proving it, Poe gets across his point that you cannot live with such guilt in your life; it will get the better of you. The murderer shouts, "I admit the deed! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" Poe shows how the assailant can no longer hold it in, and the truth bursts forth, where it will inevitably come to in any situation.
ReplyDeleteCaroline M. 2
ReplyDeleteThe theme of the Tell Tale Heart is that even if you get away from something, the guilt that you suffer from can really get to you. If you do something wrong, you will feel shame and regret. The shame, regret, and other feelings can drive you to insanity. The human heart cannot endure the burden of guilt, especially in the case of murder. The tone of the story, like all of Poe's stories, is nervous. “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. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” There is a sense of sadness in Tell Tale because the man is so pathetic. The narrator is so outlandish and brash that his eventual demise leaves us as sad as it is shocking. "Then I heard it. It might have been an ant, a clock. But no. Louder, and still louder. They must hear it, and yet they sit and talk and talk. Of course they must! They know, they do! They're torturing me, watching me, letting it beat so that I... That I... Stop it! Stop it, you devils! Yes, yes, I did it! It's there, under the floor! Oh, stop it! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" This is how the tone of the story contributes to the theme.
The theme of the Tell Tale Heart is how guilt eats away at you until you step up and tell the truth. When you know you do something wrong you get this strange feeling that you should tell someone that you messed up, but like a lot of people they try to hold it in and not inform anyone. The tone in the story was very mischievous and somber. It is interesting how Poe makes the main character commit murder without a problem. In a way it is kind of sadistic and messed up. "Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him." How can a person just kill a person so easily? The tone contributes to the theme as guilt will prevail when you do something wrong.
ReplyDeleteJake S.
ReplyDeleteThere is an eerie tone throughout the story as the narrator is obsessed with the idea of the old man’s eyes, “a pale-blue, film-covered eye like that of a vulture, that he could not stand” and the “evil eye” causes his blood to run cold. This contributes to the theme of love and hate when the narrator confesses his love for the old man whom he then violently murders and dismembers. The narrator reveals his madness by attempting to separate the person of the old man, whom he loves, from the old man's evil eye,which triggers the narrator's hatred.
This story had a sense of unease. Throughout the entire story, the narrator is trying to convince the reader (and perhaps prove to himself) that he is not crazy, even though he clearly is, "Hearken! and observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story." (1) Possibly because of the guilt eating away at him, the narrator continues, almost desperately, to prove that he is not insane "If you still think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." (3) The tone of the story is grim because the narrator is talking about and treating murder very lightly and in a conversational manner. This is very strange to us as we all know that one of the most horrific and evil actions to commit is murder. It is not some people generally speak about, especially openly. this shows the narrator's psychopathic nature and how unstable is truly is.
ReplyDeleteSkylar S.
The theme of Tell Tale Heart is that sometimes telling a lie can eat you up inside. When you lie about something important to someone, the guilt can drive you to the point where you desperately want to tell them. Unfortunately, many will not because it may damage their relationship with the person, so they simply allow the guilt to build up. "I admit the deed! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" This is the point in the story when the murderer cannot hold down the guilt any longer, and admits it to everyone. "You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him." He felt that he would be able to get away with the murder, but, in the end, it was his own conscious that wouldn't allow him to.
ReplyDeleteEvan S.
As you advance through this story, the story gives off an eerie tone. The man was crazy; despite killing a man, he also stalked him and watched him for the whole week beforehand, "And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it..." But he did not care for the man as a whole, he cared for the "Evil Eye". He could not separate the man from his eye with him being alive so he had to kill him; if he hadn't, he would always have to live in fear of it which had a profound effect on him, "...my blood ran cold...". The love for the man and disdain for the eye shows the reader the true nature of the man's psychotic nature. The theme of the story gives depth to the character's true nature and insight into how one can murder an innocent man for a trivial reason.
ReplyDeleteJared C. Period: 2
Alla M. Period 2
ReplyDeleteThe theme and the tone are very sad, and not very happy. The main character is called crazy, and he tries to prove it wrong. "Hearken!" he yells to get them to listen. The theme mortality, because it is like a murder mystery. It deals with the fear of dying and death itself. "I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever." so we know who the killer is mostly and sort of why he wants to kill him. Poe writes how the old mans eye bothers the character and makes him nervous. "For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a virtue- a pale blue eye, with a film over it."The theme is mortality because the main character wants to subject the old man to death.
I think that the theme of the story, saddness and frustration, is portrayed through the tone because Poe I think purposely made the story a little disjointed and frustrating, so that we'd really get the feel of the story. I think that part of the theme was to show us how one thing can completely take hold of ones thoughts. The narrator loved the old man, he had no personal problem with him, his only motive for killing him was to get rid of his "evil eye". No matter how much he cared for the old man, he couldn't stand him because of this one thing.
ReplyDeleteThe dark, eerie, and at some points, manic tone that is characteristic of Mr. Poe's writing emphasis's the story's chilling theme. The story is told by an unstable man who tries desperately to convince the reader of his sanity. The most disturbing aspect of this passage is that the man cannot recognize his own thought process nor actions as being deranged. Throughout the entire story, he tries to prove his sanity with explanations such as "If you still think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." (pg. 3) His explanations only prove to deepen the writers understanding of just how demented this man truly is. In the end, it's the narrator's madness that undoes him. Upon murdering his poor victim, the man begins to hear the nonexistent sound of his prey's beating heart, "They're torturing me, watching me, letting it beat so that I... That I... Stop it! Stop it, you devils! Yes, yes, I did it! It's there, under the floor! Oh, stop it! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" The illusion disturbs the man and drives him to confess his actions to the police.
ReplyDeleteIana West. Period 2
The Tell-Tale Heart is undeniably a masterpiece of horror literature and certainly stands as Poe's most well known story.
ReplyDeleteNot only is Poe's plot macabre, but the use of a first-person narrator effectively deepens the level at which this story unsettles the reader.
The narrator is not telling a story, but confessing to a crime; explaining how he did it and why he did it.
This gives the story a Gothic theme found in other stories such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but also introduces Poe's spin on it with the addition of a very unreliable narrator.
The narrator doesn't want you to dismiss him as insane, thus he constantly tries to point out the logic behind his actions, giving the story a frantic, entreating tone at times. For instance, the narrator does this as he describes how clever he was for having watched the old man in his sleep, claiming, " Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust [my head] in...It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening...Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this..." The narrator does not trust your opinion of him, though he has faith that you are admiring his thought process as much as he is.
He is proud of himself for killing the old man, but ultimately is not free from guilt, as it manifests itself through the hallucination of the old man's heartbeat and caused him to lose control.
In this excerpt, the narrator describes his loss of control before his confession of the murder, "I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased...I foamed --I raved --I swore!"
The theme of how emotions can overwhelm an individual and warp his or her perception of the world is again one found in Gothic literature. In Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein admits to his paralyzing fear of alienation for being accused of insanity; a fear also identified by the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart.
What makes this theme effective is that the reader can use it to exercise their own anxieties of the vulnerability that accompanies a crippling emotion like guilt.
^
DeleteDan Lalor
Period 2
Great job Dan! Good connections to Frankenstein. Nice analysis if the unreliable narrator!
DeleteThe tone of this story was undeniably dark, as it was all about killing an old man and trying to justify the action, but failing miserably. After stalking the old man, the narrator finally killed him, and was proud because he believed he had pulled off the perfect murder. But he couldn't handle the guilt, so he felt he had no choice but to confess. When he couldn't take it anymore, he told the police, "They're torturing me, watching me, letting it beat so that I... That I... Stop it! Stop it, you devils! Yes, yes, I did it! It's there, under the floor! Oh, stop it! It is the beating of his hideous heart!". He couldn't handle that he had taken a man's life, even if he had justified it to himself, and it also shows his mental instability, which could have lead to the murder in the first place. This story all around has many dark tones, from the mental disorder of the narrator to the murder of an innocent old man, and this is how Poe wanted it to be portrayed.
ReplyDeleteEvan S
P2