Wednesday, February 12, 2014

"Tell Tale Heart"- Period 6

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.

22 comments:

  1. I would describe the most common tone of this short story as eerie. The extremely common use of words pertaining to mortality, and the dark (both literally and figuratively) setting effectively adds this uncomfortable feeling to whatever the reader is thinking. While I wouldn't describe this feeling as the same feeling of guilt I associate with the theme, it has a similarly heavy nature to what the main character is feeling when he "hears" the beating heart. Take, for example, the line: "Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror" The mere choice of vocabulary is dark - groaning, terror, etc. - it's powerful. The repetition used a few times in the story also makes the "heartbeat" more believable when the guilt starts to settle in to the mind of our main character. Examples of such repetition are in the penultimate line of the story (Where "louder" is repeated). The line once again adds a bit of "weight" with each use of the same word. Poe's use of a shady, suspicious tone very effectively aid in conveying the theme of the power of guilt.

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  2. The Tell-Tale heart is a dark, creepy story, about a clearly insane man murdering someone that he says he loves, "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me." His sole motivation for killing him was his vulture eye. And as if the fact that he had killed someone based on their eye being weird isn't enough to make us think he is mad, he continues to repeatedly, nervously tell us that he's sane. "Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story." He is trying to convince us of his sanity. However, he cannot control himself. At the end of the story, when the narrator tells us that he ripped the dead man's beating heart out from under the floorboards, his narrations become more excited and nervous. he finally loses his temper. At this point, you can see his true insanity.
    Jess L. Period 6

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  3. The Theme is sadistic. It is dark and eerie and when reading it you can't help but make that little voice in your head seem a little psychotic. The tone comes off immediately morose."I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?" Poe expresses the deep strange pain the man suffers as he has killed a man. Then as the story progresses it becomes more reflective, " I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye --not even his --could have detected any thing wrong. " Poe delves deep into the thought process of the murderer and gives you more of the picture of his distorted mind. All along the way you have a sense of dread as you know what comes ind the end.
    Sonny G. Pr. 6

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  4. The tone of a tell taale heart, suspense, contributes greatly to the evil theme of the story. The character, while occasionally adressing the reader tells about how he killed a man, but only to free him from his evil eye. The character then claims to not be insane, although he exclaimed "It is impossible to say how first idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night." (Killing the man) The tone adds to the mystery, because we question the insanity of the man. It adds multiple facets, because he swears he is not crazy. The reader is then left to question his sanity. At the end, however, it is safe to assume that the man is off of his rocker.
    Ben G
    Per 6

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  5. Jackson M
    Period 6
    The tone of this story was intense. The repetition of words creates an eerie, tense feeling for the reader. He referenced how we all must think that he is mad multiple times, and proved it with reasons only another madman would agree with. "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". This repetition lead to a lot of suspense. Also it is creepy and psychotic how careful he planned it out. "...every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept." To be so scrupulous about how he would kill him is unnerving.

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  6. Mike Caminear Period 6
    The overall tone of this story was suspenseful and eerie. It was always interesting finding out what happened next and then thinking why it happened the way it did. This theme of the story, in my eyes, is that all wrongdoings will eventually show themselves and that the bad things one does will stick around for people to bear. A quote in the story that supports this is, "...I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!' This ties into the mood of the story because it definitely felt as if something unexpected was going to happen as the story progressed. In addition to this, the tone of suspense and eeriness contributes to the theme by making the story all the more thrilling and interesting. A quote that shows the uniqueness of this story is, "I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily..." As the reader this showed me that the main character was slightly insane, and that I wanted to read the rest of the story.

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  7. The tone in this story was dark and mysterious. I think the overall theme of the story is guilt for the things you have done in your lifetime. The dark and mysteriousness of the story kind of built up a suspense especially at the end when the narrator kept saying "the ringing became more distinct: --It continued and became more distinct..." It made you wonder what the ringing was and it was almost like you could actually put yourself in his place. Another reason why I think guilt is the main theme in this story is because in the last paragraph you see the real effect of the murder on the man when he starts thinking the cops are talking about him and that they can hear the heartbeat sound and they know what he did when in fact they don't. The story ends when he says, "'Villains!' I shrieked, 'dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!'" In this quote he admits to the cops out of the blue that he committed a murder and after all the built up of guilt in his mind he finally gives up on hiding it.
    Jessica M. Period 6

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  8. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a twisted sickening story. The theme is probably insanity leads to guilt. This guy is clearly insane or a "mad-man". He went from loving this old man, to murdering him. How is that a sane thing to do? "...shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye," so, basically the main character hates this old man is one eye? Clearly there is more to the story the readers are missing. Then once the murder takes place, normal people dump the body. What does this main character? Oh yeah he "dismembers" the corpse. This is so sickening, how can you dismember a body without feeling guilt or sick? Heck most people can't dismember a corpse they had nothing to do with, yet alone dealing with their own murder. By now, after the corpse is all dismember, normal people deposit all these parts, this man instead hides it under his floor board? This is so sick. I mean imagine sleeping knowing you have body parts under your floor board. At last this man comes to his sense and out of his insanity, when he hears the heart beat. He realizes the murder he committed because of his temper and the built of his mind makes his guilt go on overdrive when he hears this beating heart. If his diabolical scheme wasn't enough to prove his insanity, the ending proves how insane he is ridden with the guilt of his crimes.
    Miranda S

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  9. This story is about a crazy person who stalks a man. Every night he comes in and watches him to decide when to kill the person. One night the man wakes up, and the narrator kills him. However, the man had screamed, and the police comes in. The story is very dark, and it is very special. Its a story about insanity, and a man that is out of his mind. When he leads the officers in the apartment, he is completely calm, and even when they are asking questions in the mans bedroom he doesn't show any feelings and stays the same. When the heart pump, that is when the creepy part start playing its role. I personally liked this story, because it was so different from any other story I have read.

    christian F

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  10. Ahmad Zaidi
    Period 6
    The tone of the this story is mysterious and psychotic. When reading his story I always felt like the main character of the story was a psychopath and was trying to make the audience feel like he was completely stable. The character madness is shown when he appears to like the old man but yet still wants to kill him and when he has successfully fooled the police, but he confesses himself without the police even suspecting. This story in my opinion shows how mind of a criminal works and how in their mind they have a excuse for all of their crimes.

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  11. I would label the tone of this story as intense and mysterious. The tones of this story help to keep it suspenseful and eager to continue reading. I think the theme of this story is centered on the complications that can take place in the human mind. It was interesting as a reader to imagine something as insignificant as an eye can cause a man to kill. I thought it was very interesting how the man thought he was a being rational the entire time, “Now this is the point. You fancy me a mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded...” He had convinced himself that what he was doing made sense.
    -Cassidy McCarns, Period 6

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  12. Edgar Allen Poe poetically described his character's murder of the old man. In doing so it gives the story a unnerving feeling because the literature is beautiful even though the subject matter is rather gory. His writing in general is meant to make the audience uncomfortable as shown by stating things like "If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." This quote in particular I believe Poe meant to be slightly sarcastic in a sense. He stated that the precautions he took to hide the body will make the readers believe he isn't mad but Poe must have known that his precautions were not what made the readers believe he was mad more so the reasons behind the taken precautions.
    Shoshanna Longo
    period 6

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  13. The tone of this story was extremely eerie and mysterious. In my opinion, the theme is that the guilt of your wrong doings in life can add up and cause so much trauma that it can cause a completely sane person to lose it. The mysterious tone accentuates the eerie and creepy aspects of the story, and helps develop the theme and show the reality of what can happen.
    Aidan Deane Per 6

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  14. The tone of this story is very dark and creepy. The man brings the officers into his house and everything is going fine at first until he loses it. This is when it gets creepy. The tone of the story contributes to the theme because the tone of the story is very dark, and I believe that the theme is that the guilt was too much for this man to handle which is why he went crazy.
    Aodhan Dunn period 6

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  15. The tone of the Tell Tale Heart is very dark and intense. It influences the theme of insanity by complimenting the nature of this madman. This guy obviously has some serious problems, by saying things like ""If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." It gets very intense while the officers are in the house, and he shows his psychotic and uncontrollable side to them.
    Aaron R
    Period 6

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  16. The dark, creepy tone of the story contributes to the sadistic themes, based on sanity and lack there of. The story made me think about what sanity was and how we determine people sane or insane, especially when they deny it. Tell-Tale Heart seemed particularly creepy to me because the main character continuously reassured himself that he was sane. "...observe how healthily, how calmly I can tell you the whole story." The vocabulary in this story was dark and gloomy too, the word dark itself was used several times. This showed how the wording and plot of a story can match each other well, it creeped me out even more, which was probably Poe's intention.
    Emma P per.6

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  17. Leah B Period 6
    I think that the theme of this story is guilt and paranoia along with the idea of how they can quite literally eat away at you and your sanity very slowly until you can't take it anymore.Because here he was in the beginning and through out most of the story, constantly complimenting himself and admiring "the wise precautions" he took and the way he "waited a long time, very patiently" before killing the man. Even saying how his "manner had convinced them" them being the officers who came to investigate. But while the police were there he grew extremely paranoid and began to show it, because in his mind he began to hear the beating heart of the man whom he had buried under the floorboards. And this chipped away at his resolve and obviously his sanity until he ultimately confessed to the murder.

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  18. Jonathan Williams, p6

    I believe that the tone of this story is gloomy, dark, and creepy. This impacts the theme because it really highlights his insanity. It goes into the dismemberment of the corpse and the heart beats that the main character hears, which definitely shows how crazy he is. Another thing that supports this is when he states, "If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body." If the character thinks that what he did proves him to be sane, that just further solidifies his psychopathic ways. To conclude, this story's dark and gloomy tone really helps reflect the main character's personality.

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  19. I thought the tone of "Tell Tale Heart" was very intense and dark. I found the mysterious tone was very interesting.“Now this is the point. You fancy me a mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded." This quote shows the depth of this poem and his logic. Overall I believe that this poem was very powerful.
    Rachel C

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  20. The tone of "Tell Tale Heart" was very dark and unnerving. I realized that this dark tone kept me on the reading on the edge of my seat to see what would happen next. The quote "All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim." This quote to me was very unnerving and was sort of messed up. But it also showed how he was a mad man.
    Teagan M.
    Period 6

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  21. The Tell-Tale Heart is an interesting and ominous story written by a man just and mysterious. The story follows an unknown narrator who walks us through the chain of events that leads to him violently murdering an old man who he lived with and claimed that he loved. One of the major themes of this short story is guilt. When the narrator kills the old man he claims to feel no remorse and is satisfied with his endeavor, however when the police show up to investigate a noise complaint the narrator begins to get nervous even though he is not suspected of any wrong doing. The policemen stay to chat and throughout this time the narrator gets more and more anxious until he reveals his actions. "...I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!" His guilt built until he couldn't contain it anymore and the only way to stop the pain or the beating of the heart was to admit his wrong and feel remorse.
    Hannah Beatty

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  22. The tone of the story is definitely dark and maybe even a little melancholy. I would also eerie and the main character is definitely not all there. The story does have some slow bits in the beginning that could drag but after he kills the old man it seems to just pull you right along with it. Like you can look away because then you might miss something you shouldn't have. So maybe you could say the story has a sort of pull. I think the story can also be relate able because everyone has a time where they have done some thing and the guilt eats at them until they have to tell someone to just make the little voices be quiet.
    sam period6

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