Plot
The unnamed narrator is possessed by an old man’s eye.
He watches the old man each night as he sleeps plotting how he should kill him.
He murders the old man on the eighth night of watching him. He dismembers the old man’s body and
places the corpse under the planks of the chamber.
The next morning, three police officers come into the house to search the premises.
The narrator starts to hear the beat of the old man’s heart and he confesses that the
old man is buried under the planks.
Key Quotes ‘True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am
mad?’ (p.384)
‘He had the eye of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so
by degrees – very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever’
(p.384)
‘I knew it was the grown of mortal terror’ (p.386)
‘They heard! – they suspected! – they knew!’ (p.389)
Setting
The old man’s house
Mysterious
Dark
Candle lit
Gothic
Victorian
Characters
Narrator protagonist, narrator-perpetrator, unnamed narrator ~ psychologically cripple and yet, still aware of
his actions as he has the ability to actually describe and reflect on them. He is guilt ridden and struggles to
accept his immorality.
The old man ~ he is the victim of a gruesome crime as well as the cause of the narrator’s breakdown and this
makes his presence in the story quite powerful. However, as a character, his purpose is to merely reveal the
shadowy mind of the unnamed narrator.
Narrative Voice
1st person narration ~ a journey into the mind of a man who commits murder and this is his reflection of committing this hideous act.
Language and Style
Suspenseful, melodramatic, dominating tones
Rhetorical questioning, trying to connect to audience
Exaggerated, intense and passionate, e.g. excessive use of exclamation marks
Short and sharp sentences illustrating the nervous atmosphere
Satirical ~ Poe’s exaggerated tone almost mocks the narrator’s guilt
Ideas/Themes/Concerns
Reality and unreality ~ Poe highlights the importance of delusions
Guilt and conscience ~ Poe illustrates how moral codes form mind and action; the uncontrollable evil
eye consistently reflects upon the self.
Unknown words list
Unknown Words
sagacity
Supposition
stealthily
crevice
mockery
Acuteness
suavity
reposed
bade
deputed
scantlings
definitiveness
trifles
dissemble
gesticulations
Synonym (word with the same meaning)
rationality, wisdom
theory, idea
Silently
gap, crack
Insult
intensity, severity
smooth, polite
rest, relax
Encouraged
assign, appoint, commit
dimensions in ship buildings
Perfect
dessert
Undo
signal, sign