Mobilization on the Home Front

Question 79 • TX-Art I A

Which detail from "The Tell-Tale Heart” best explores the psychology of the narrator?

Answer

“I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in bed, crying out—‘Who’s there?’”

“And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense?—now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too.”

“The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead.”

“A shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises.”

Explanation

Choice B most directly reveals the narrator’s psychological state: he insists that he is not mad, yet describes hearing an unusually vivid sound that he believes is the old man’s heartbeat. This shows his heightened senses and growing fixation, which make him an unreliable narrator. The other choices mainly describe the events of the murder or the police investigation.

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