Literary Techniques & Fig. Language in "The Tell Tale Heart"

True!--nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?

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. Ha!--would a madman have been so wise as this?

As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart--for what had I to fear?

I smiled--for what had I to fear?

All of the above are examples of an argumentative technique called ____________________.

• imagery

• irony

• rhetorical questioning

• repetition

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.

• simile

• metaphor

• personification

• huperbole

Answer explanation

The idea haunted him day and night.

Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.

What literary device is used in the underlined sentences above?

• repetition

• inverted sentence order

• connotation

• figurative language

Answer explanation

Yodish- "Yoda" talk

Watch the video for an explanation.

What literary device is used in the following lines?

"One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture-- a pale, blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold..."

• figurative language

• imagery

• hyperbole

• irony

Answer explanation

sensory language

"And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously--oh, so cautiously--cautiously (for the hinges creaked)..."

What literary technique is used in this line from the story?

• figurative language

• sarcasm

• repetition

• persuasive language

Answer explanation

The word "cautiously" is repeated three times for emphasis.

Why is "Evil Eye" capitalized in the following sentence?

"...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."

• It is capitalized for no specific reason.

• Poe capitalizes it to personify the eye as an antagonist in the story.

• Poe capitalizes it because eye is always a proper noun.

• It is capitalized because writers capitalized words randomly in the 1800s.

Answer explanation

The eye is the source of conflict in the story; therefore, it is the antagonist.

What type of figurative language is used here?

Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine.

• simile

• metaphor

• personification

• hyperbole

Answer explanation

The narrator' description of how slowly he moved his hand in the door is an extreme exaggeration.

What literary element is used in the following lines from the story?

"To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea; and perhaps he heard me; for he moved on the bed suddenly, as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back--but no. His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness (for the shutters were close-fastened, through fear of robbers), and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door..."

• irony

• hyperbole

• connotation

• imagery

Answer explanation

It is ironic that the old man has fastened his shutters well because he is afraid of robbers, while the danger is actually already inside the house. The old man is oblivious to the narrator's true intentions.

Why does Poe allude to the "death watches" superstition in the following lines?

"I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed listening--just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall."

• Poe uses the allusion to the superstition about death watches to foreshadow the old man's imminent death.

• Poe uses the allusion to build suspense in the rising action part of the story.

• Poe uses the allusion to explain why the old man is still sitting up in the bed listening.

• both A and B

What type of figurative language is used here?

"...I resolved to open a little--a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it--you can imagine how stealthily, stealthily--until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye."

• simile

• metaphor

• personfication

• hyperbole