- Protagonist: The unnamed narrator
- Antagonist: The old man (specifically his "vulture eye")
- Other: The police officers
- Conflict: Person vs. Self (the narrator's guilt and madness)
- When does the conflict begin? When the narrator decides to kill the old man because of his eye.
- When does the story take place? At night, over several days leading up to the murder.
- Where does the story take place? Inside the old man’s house.
- Why does the author tell us the story in this way? To create a sense of psychological horror and unreliable narration; the tone is tense, paranoid, and increasingly frantic, reflecting the narrator’s descent into madness.
- What action/event is the climax? The narrator murders the old man by smothering him with the bed mattress.
- How does the story resolve/end? The narrator confesses to the police after imagining he hears the old man’s heart still beating beneath the floorboards.
- Summary: The narrator, obsessed with the old man’s “vulture eye,” plots and carries out his murder. He hides the body under the floorboards and confidently receives the police, but his guilty conscience manifests as the imagined sound of the dead man’s heartbeat, driving him to confess.
- Plot Structure:
- Exposition: Narrator introduces himself and claims he is not mad, then describes his obsession with the old man’s eye.
- Rising Action: Narrator stalks the old man for seven nights, waiting for the eye to appear; on the eighth night, he kills him.
- Climax: The murder occurs when the narrator smothers the old man.
- Falling Action: Narrator dismembers and hides the body; police arrive and question him.
- Denouement: Narrator breaks down and confesses due to the hallucinated heartbeat.
Parent Tip: Review the logic above to help your child master the concept of tell tale heart worksheet.
