Tone, Mood, and Irony in
The Tell-Tale Heart
Tone: The way the author creates the mood or the author’s attitude (what
the author does to make you feel a certain way).
Example: punctuation (style), diction, repetition, sentence length
The story is full of suspense, mystery and fear by utilizing POV and a
variety of different sights and sounds. Poe interlinks the sounds, senses,
imagery and diction, and uses one to reinforce another in order to create a
perfect and horrific and suspenseful mood. As a reader reads the story
they will be immersed by atmosphere the author creates and continually
be frightened.
What various tones are and how they work together to
make the mood?
The whole story, the narrator is trying to – at the same –
time convince us that he isn’t crazy and share all the
details of how he covered up his crime. The story uses
a lot of descriptive sounds to create mood of fear,
anxiety and paranoia. The effect is an overwhelming
guilt that builds to his panicked confession.
Mood
Definition:
Words to describe
mood:
How it is developed:
What it helps to
develop:
The atmosphere of a story that causes certain feelings
in the reader.
http://www.fallriverschools.org/Tone%20and%20Mood%
20words%20(unedited).pdf
Through setting (time and place) and diction (author’s
word choice)
Theme and Tone
Tone
Definition:
Words to
describe tone:
★ The author’s attitude toward the subject
http://www.fallriverschools.org/Tone%20and%20Mood%20word
s%20(unedited).pdf
★ Diction (author’s word choice)
How it is
developed:
What it helps
develop:
★ Theme
Theme
Thematic
Concept:
★ One word used as a category for the thematic statement
○ Love, war, hate, guilt
Examples:
Thematic
Statement:
Examples:
How it is
developed:
★ A phrase or sentence that shares the universal lesson
learned from the story
○ Love always prevails in the end; war tears apart
families and civilizations; hatred causes needless
disasters; guilt ultimately leads to downfall
★ mood, tone, and diction
The Tell-Tale Heart Mood, Tone, and Theme (15
points)
Put words and phrases that develop
mood (setting, sounds, description)
around the mood box. 1 point
Put words and phrases
that develop tone around
the tone box.
1 point
Tone is
Menacing
Mood
1 pt.
Textual
Evidence 1
1 point
Thematic Concept 1 pt
Explain how the tone helps to develop the
theme here. 2 points
You don’t have to use boxes--you can get creative
and use pictures that go with the story.
2 points=readability and neatness
Thematic Statement 1 pt
Textual
Evidence 2
1 point
Common Assessment: once done do the following
There are several examples of irony in The Tell-Assignment
Tale Heart. Your job is to identify them.
You should identify at least 3 examples of irony. You should NOT have the same
type of irony for each example. For each, include the following:
Example of irony from the story (3 points)
Correctly identify type of irony (3 points)
Explain why it is ironic (3 points)
At least one piece of textual evidence that supports the type of irony (3 point)
Explain how the textual evidence supports the type of irony (3 points)