“The Tell-Tale Heart”—QUIZ—pages 89-94
Directions: Read each question below. Use the text to help you determine the best answer for each. Write
your answer on your answer paper.
1. What does the narrator say that his disease has done to him?
A. made him nervous
B. sharpened his senses
C. turned him into a murderer
D. caused him to lie
2. Which line shows the POINT OF VIEW from which the story is told?
A. “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness…”
B. “It was open—wide, wide open—“
C. “When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down…”
D. “all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it…”
3. What evidence from the story suggests that our narrator is not reliable (cannot be trusted for some reason)?
A. “Upon the eighth night, I was more than usually cautious in opening the door.”
B. “To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deed or
thoughts.”
C. “Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers—of my sagacity (sound judgement).”
D. “…he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily.”
4. The narrator waits a week before killing the old man because the narrator
A. says that he must see the old man’s eye first.
B. likes frightening the old man many times.
C. waits for the darkest night of the week.
D. feels guilty about taking a human life.
5. You can evaluate the narrator’s state of mind as unreliable when he
A. explains that he did not kill the old man for his money.
B. describes his movements on the night of the murder.
C. says he is sane, but then describes how cleverly he hid the body.
D. confesses that he is nervous in the beginning of the story.
6. The author creates suspense by
A. revealing the ways in which the narrator is kind to the old man.
B. explaining why the narrator hid the body after the murder.
C. saying that the narrator loved the old man.
D. describing what the narrator did before the murder.
7. When the author writes in lines 85-87, “…it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that
caused him to feel—although he neither saw now heard—to feel the presence of my head in the room,” why
does he repeat the phrase, “to feel” twice?
A. He’s trying to show that the old man could feel the movement of the narrator in his room.
B. He’s trying to show that although the old man couldn’t see the narrator in the room, he could still sense
he was in the room.
C. He’s trying to show that the narrator had been clumsy and loud and alerted the old man to his presence.
D. He’s trying to show that the cat had come into the room and alerted the old man of the narrator’s
presence.
8. Suspense is the growing tension, fear and excitement felt by readers. Suspense can be created by
describing a character’s own anxiety. Which line below (from lines 103-115) is evidence of Poe’s creation
of suspense by describing how the narrator feels anxious?
A. “…there came to my ears a low, dull quick sound…”
B. “The old man’s terror must have been extreme…”
C. “…so strange a noise excited me to uncontrollable terror.”
D. “But even yet I refrained and kept still.”
9. In lines 130-141, the narrator tries to share with us that he is actually reliable, that we should trust him to
give an accurate assessment or retelling of the events. What line below helps the reader realize that our
narrator really is UNRELIABLE?
A. “I then took up three planks from the floorings of the chamber, and desposited all between the
scantlings.”
B. “There was nothing to wash out—no stain of any kind—no blood-spot whatever.”
C. “The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence.”
D. “If you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the
concealment of the body.”
10. Why is the narrator upset with the police at the end of the story?
A. The police find the old man’s body.
B. The police accuse him of murder.
C. He thinks the police are mocking or making fun of him.
D. He thinks the police are trying to kill him
11. Why does the author use italic type in lines 172-174 when he writes, “It was a low, dull quick sound—
much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton?”
A. To emphase the sound that the narrator hears.
B. So that the reader sits up and recognizes that this is the 2nd time the author has heard this noise.
C. To remind the reader that the narrator is insane or crazy.
D. The let the reader in on a secret that the police hid a watch in the house.
12. In the end of the story, we know that the old man’s heard cannot be making the noise that the narrator
hears. What logical explanation explains the source of the sound that the narrator hears twice in the story
(the low, dull quick sound—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton)?
A. It’s a horror story—anything can happen, so it MUST be the old man’s heart.
B. Because the narrator feels nervous, and maybe guilty, his heart beat is fast and he’s hearing his own
heart.
C. The narrator is hearing the heartbeat of the police officers who already know he murdered the old man.
D. The old man had a watch in his pocket, and the narrator keeps hearing that.
13. Edgar Allan Poe likes to use the dash. He uses them for a variety of reasons when he writes: to signal a
sudden break in thought, to signal to the reader to pause and pay attention to what’s going on in the story,
and to let the reader better hear the narrator’s thoughts. Which line below uses a dash to better hear what our
narrator is thinking?
A. “I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye—not even his—could have
detected anything wrong.”
B. “…I resolved to open a little—a very, very little crevice in the lantern.”
C. “’Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is
the beating of his hideous heart!”
D. “I did so for seven long nights—every night just after midnight—but found the eye always closed…”
Constructed Response: Using evidence from the story, explain what makes our narrator unreliable.
Answer in R-A-C-E format:
RESTATE the question (What makes our narrator unreliable?):
Give a short, to the point ANSWER (5 words or less):
CITE two piece of evidence that support your answer. EXPLAIN how each piece of evidence shows that
he’s not a reliable narrator and we shouldn’t trust him.
CONCLUDE your paragraph with a sentence that wraps things up.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________