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Illustration by Harry Clarke, 1919 |
Edgar Allan Poe at he the Wikipedia: click here
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Deathwatch beetle |
Presentation, by Àngels Gallardo
Edgar Allan Poe
He was a writer, poet, crític reviewer and journalist, and he has been recognized as one of the best authors of short horror stories.
The Tell-Tale Heart:
The history relates the obsession of a man for an old man who has a pale blue eye.
We don't know the man who explains what happened, which was the relation between two men and what their names were, but we know that they were living together in an old house.
He was so obsessed with the pale blue eye of the old man that he thought he would kill him.
Every night at twelve o'clock, he went to the bedroom of the old man to watch him sleeping to see if he had his pale blue eye open.
After eight nights, he saw that his eye was open and decided to kill him.
The old man shrieked when the man wanted to kill him, and a neighbour who heard it called the police.
The man had a guilty conscience, and, at the end, he confessed the crime to the police officers.
QUESTIONS
“The
disease had sharpened my senses”. Do you know a case where an illness can
sharpen the senses? They used to say that tuberculosis sharpened the sexual appetite.
Say
something about the narrator. Could the narrator be a woman? Why?
Who was
the old man?
What
was the relationship between the narrator and the victim?
What is
the “evil eye”? What are your superstitions?
There
is a saying “Better the devil you know (than the devil you don't).” What do you
prefer: something /somebody new (unknown) or something /somebody old (known)?
Why?
“The
beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage”. Do you think this is
true? What stimulates you into courage?
Who
were the three men, and why did they come to the house?
How
long did the murder and the hiding of the body last?
Why didn’t
the murderer kill the man one of the seven first nights?
What do
you think is the noise of “a watch when enveloped in cotton”?
VOCABULARY
dark lantern, chuckle, awe,
well up, marrow, tattoo, yell, stone dead, wan, tub, foam, dissemble
A scene of the most horrible butchery ensued. The bound
seamen were dragged to the gangway. Here the cook stood with an axe, striking
each victim on the head as he was forced over the side of the vessel by the
other mutineers. In this manner twenty-two perished, and Augustus had given
himself up for lost, expecting every moment his own turn to come next. But it
seemed that the villains were now either weary, or in some measure disgusted
with their bloody labour; for the four remaining prisoners, together with my
friend, who had been thrown on the deck with the rest, were respited while the
mate sent below for rum, and the whole murderous party held a drunken carouse,
which lasted until sunset. They now fell to disputing in regard to the fate of
the survivers, who lay not more than four paces off, and could distinguish
every word said. Upon some of the mutineers the liquor appeared to have a
softening effect, for several voices were heard in favour of releasing the
captives altogether, on condition of joining the mutiny and sharing the
profits. The black cook, however (who in all respects was a perfect demon, and
who seemed to exert as much influence, if not more, than the mate himself),
would listen to no proposition of the kind, and rose repeatedly for the purpose
of resuming his work at the gangway. Fortunately, he was so far overcome by
intoxication as to be easily restrained by the less bloodthirsty of the party,
among whom was a line-manager, who went by the name of Dirk Peters. This man
was the son of an Indian squaw of the tribe of Upsarokas, who live among the
fastnesses of the Black Hills near the source of the Missouri. His father was a
fur-trader, I believe, or at least connected in some manner with the Indian
trading-posts on Lewis river. Peters himself was one of the most purely
ferocious-looking men I ever beheld. He was short in stature—not more than four
feet eight inches high—but his limbs were of the most Herculean mould. His
hands, especially, were so enormously thick and broad as hardly to retain a
human shape. His arms, as well as legs, were bowed in the most
singular manner, and appeared to possess no flexibility whatever. His head was
equally deformed, being of immense size, with an indentation on the crown (like
that on the head of most negroes), and entirely bald. To conceal this latter
deficiency, which did not proceed from old age, he usually wore a wig formed of
any hair-like material which presented itself—occasionally the skin of a
Spanish dog or American grizzly bear. At the time spoken of he had on a portion
of one of these bearskins; and it added no little to the natural ferocity of
his countenance, which betook of the Upsaroka character. The mouth extended
nearly from ear to ear; the lips were thin, and seemed, like some other portions
of his frame, to be devoid of natural pliancy, so that the ruling expression
never varied under the influence of any emotion whatever. This ruling
expression may be conceived when it is considered that the teeth were
exceedingly long and protruding, and never even partially covered, in any
instance, by the lips. To pass this man with a casual glance, one might imagine
him to be convulsed with laughter—but a second look would induce a shuddering
acknowledgment, that if such an expression were indicative of merriment, the
merriment must be that of a demon. Of this singular being many anecdotes were
prevalent among the seafaring men of Nantucket. These anecdotes went to prove
his prodigious strength when under excitement, and some of them had given rise
to a doubt of his sanity. But on board the Grampus, it seems, he was regarded
at the time of the mutiny with feelings more of derision than of anything else.
I have been thus particular in speaking of Dirk Peters, because, ferocious as
he appeared, he proved the main instrument in preserving the life of Augustus,
and because I shall have frequent occasion to mention him hereafter in the
course of my narrative—a narrative, let me here say, which, in its latter
portions, will be found to include incidents of a nature so entirely out of the
range of human experience, and for this reason so far beyond the limits of
human credulity, that I proceed in utter hopelessness of obtaining credence for
all that I shall tell, yet confidently trusting in time and progressing science
to verify some of the most important and most improbable of my statements.