The Tell-Tale Heart

Although a falling action and resolution isn’t included, what can the reader likely infer?

• The narrator will be arrested and punished for killing the old man.

• The narrator will get away with killing the old man.

• The narrator will keep killing others until the police arrest him.

• The narrator will realize that he is insane and feel remorseful for killing the old man.

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What situational irony is evident in the short story?

• The protagonist hides his intentions from the old man and later the police hide their intentions from him.

• The protagonist is sane and sound at the beginning of the short story but then is driven mad at the end.

• The reader infers that the protagonist says that he isn’t crazy, but the protagonist doesn’t mean what he says.

• The reader is aware that the protagonist is crazy even though he claims not to be mad.

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What is the central conflict of the short story: internal or external?

• The central conflict is mostly external: It is about the protagonist and his history with the old man.

• The central conflict is mostly external: It is about the protagonist versus the police.

• The central conflict is mostly internal: It is about the protagonist versus himself, his paranoia, the things he has done.

• The central conflict is mostly internal: It is about the protagonist versus society.

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Why does the protagonist kill the old man, and how does this action indirectly characterize him?

• The protagonist wants the old man’s wealth, which indirectly characterizes him as being greedy.

• The protagonist hates the old man, which indirectly characterizes him as belligerent and wrathful.

• The protagonist is disgusted by the old man’s eye, which indirectly characterizes him as being paranoid and obsessive.

• The protagonist wants to possess the old man’s eye, which indirectly characterizes him as being sick and disturbed.

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All of the following pieces of evidence indirectly characterize how disturbed the protagonist is except which?

• The protagonist chuckles at the idea of killing the old man

• The protagonist kills the old man in a brutally bloody, gory, and violent way.

• The protagonist smiles happily as he kills the old man.

• The protagonist laughs at how he meticulously cleaned up after himself after he murders the old man.

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The protagonist laughs at how he meticulously cleaned up after himself after he murders the old man.

• the protagonist’s exercise and good health

• the protagonist’s guilt

• the protagonist’s innocence

• the protagonist’s love and excited anxiety

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What is the climax of the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”?

• The protagonist buries the old man in the room.

• The protagonist confesses to where the old man is buried whom he killed.

• The protagonist stalks and observes the old man while he sleeps for a week.

• The protagonist tries to convince the reader that he isn’t mad.

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How does the setting affect the mood of the short story?

• The dark setting within the closed room enhances the quiet, tranquil mood.

• The dark setting within the closed room enhances the unsettling, scary, and tense mood.

• The light setting within the open, sun-filled room enhances the quiet, tranquil mood.

• The light setting within the open, sun-filled room enhances the scary, tense mood.

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When the protagonist says that he is “mad,” which definition for the word does he mean?

• angry or upset

• mentally ill or insane

• very enthusiastic about someone/something

• very excited

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What does “The Tell-Tale Heart” teach readers about its first person point of view?

• Protagonists always get the desired outcome or resolution to resolve his/her/their central conflict.

• Protagonists are always aware of whom they really are and know themselves better than others.

• . Protagonists are always reliable and what they state is always accurate and should be trusted.

• Protagonists aren’t always good guys; bad characters can have their own central conflicts to resolve, too.

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