Discuss who could be the villain (antagonist) in Tell-Tale Heart? Consider your many options for the villain and discuss your rationale for your final choice.
What is the narrators motivation in reciting the crime? Consider the details he provides as he recites the crime from the beginning to the end.
What is the ultimate irony in Tell-Tale Heart and how does it relate to the title of the story?
It depends how you look at it, if the protagonist is the narrator, then the evil eye would be the villain, however if the old man is the protagonist, the narrator is the villain. In my opinion, the villain is the evil eye because it torments the protagonist throughout the story and in the end the eye "wins" by making the narrator turn himself in. It also displays the narrator's repressed feelings, which is that he is crazy.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that his guilt takes over him when he turns him self in, another thought is that he was hearing his own heart beat and not the old man's. He felt as if the old man was still alive and that he didn't actually rid himself of the evil eye forever .
The irony is that the Narrator continually says that he is not crazy throughout the story, but in the end he kind of reveals to himself and the reader that he is in fact crazy. Since the heart is what makes him turn himself in, it can be said that the heart is telling on him or giving him away, I think this is the reason for the title.
(Cypress Austin)