Download The Tell-Tale Heart* by Edgar Allan Poe

“The Tell-Tale Heart”
by Edgar Allan Poe
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Get in groups of 3 or 4 – teacher
selected.
Enjoy discussing effectively with
your classmates!
Assign roles to your group members
• Discussion Director – keeps discussions on
track, gets group’s work, helps manage
time, makes sure all members contribute to
discussion, keeps track of absent students
• Reader – reads questions aloud to group
• Spokesperson– will speak for the group if
called upon by the teacher
• Researcher – looks up evidence in text,
unfamiliar vocabulary, information, etc. to
support group (groups of 3 will combine the roles of
Spokesperson & Researcher)
1.Discuss ALL parts of your PLOT
graphic organizer with your group.
Make sure to check with your teacher to
see if answers are correct before
moving on.
2. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is told from the
murderer’s point of view. Is this an effective
device to use to tell this story? Describe
how the final scene in the story would be
different if it were told from the point of view
of one of the policeman. WHY do you think
Poe chose to write from the narrator’s point
of view? Do you like that he did this?
3. The author chooses the simile “sound
[such] as a watch makes when enveloped in
cotton” at two different points in
“The Tell-Tale Heart.” Describe why, in both
cases, the simile is a dramatic and useful
tool for the author.
4. Some of the information is suspect
because the only source is an unreliable
narrator. Discuss 3 questions you would
like to ask a more reliable source.
Explain how each question would help
you better understand the motivations
behind and effects of the murder.
5. Discuss all the references to time in
the story—watches, clocks, time
passing, etc. Why is the narrator so
concerned with time?