Question

1. Describe one moment in "The Tell-Tale Heart" where you think the narrator does not "know he was doing what was wrong."

Answer 1

Answer:

A moment when the narrator "know he was doing what was wrong" can be seen in the lines:

"I did not hate the old man; I even loved him. He had never hurt me. I did not want his money. I think it was his eye. His eye was like the eye of a vulture, the eye of one of those terrible birds that watch and wait while an animal dies, and then fall upon the dead body and pull it to pieces to eat it. When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye a cold feeling went up and down my back; even my blood became cold. And so, I finally decided I had to kill the old man and close that eye forever!"

A moment when the narrator does not "know he was doing what was wrong" can be seen in the lines:

"And every morning I went to his room, and with a warm, friendly voice I asked him how he had slept. He could not guess that every night, just at twelve, I looked in at him as he slept."

Explanation:

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story written by Edgar Alan Poe. This short story features a narrator who decides to kill an old man because he is disturbed by the appearance of a blind eye that the old man has.

The narrator seems to be aware that he is doing something wrong when he thinks he wants to kill a man who has never done wrong for a very futile reason, but he does not seem to realize that he is doing something wrong when he treats that old man with tenderness and kindness, while planning do something mean.