How Is Language Used in the Story the Tell-Tale Heart?

How is Language used in the story “The Tell-Tale Heart?”

The tone of a story is the attitude of the writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone helps the reader ascertain the writer’s feelings towards a particular topic, and this in turn influences the reader’s understanding of the story.Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject. There are 8 questions below (some with multiple parts) about the language in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Make sure you answer them all before submitting your file.

1.The tone of “The Tell-Tale Heart” has been described as menacing. List some of the words and phrases that seem particularly vivid or help set the menacing tone in the Tell-Tale Heart.

2.How does language affect the tone of the story?

3.Assign the verbs from your list to either the narrator or the victim based on whom they describe.

4.You can categorize most of the verbs into the two categories of active and passive. How does this pattern add to the sense of menace in the story?

5.Look at the vivid nouns Poe uses. Most of his nouns sound terrifying or disturbing. Discuss how certain nouns add to the sense of menace in the story.

6.Look at the auditory images, such as “crying out,” “groan of mortal terror,” or “low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul.” How do the auditory images Poe uses add to the sense of menace?

Syntax is the arrangement of words and the order of grammatical components in a sentence. Basically, it means the way a good sentence is put together. Syntax is used to draw attention to elements the writer wants to emphasize.

Repetition is an effective syntactical device that is used most often. Repetition involves using words, sounds, or ideas more than once.

Read the following sentences from “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and then answer the questions.

7. “I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned in bed…”

What is repeated in these sentences?

What is being emphasized by this repetition?

How does this increase the menacing quality of the narrator?

8. “And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel--- although he neither saw nor heard --- to feel the presence of my head within the room…”

What is repeated in this sentence?

What is being emphasized by the repetition?

How does this enhance the sense of menace in the story?

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

First published in January, 1843 in The Pioneer – Public Domain in the United States.