Homework Clinic
Social Science Clinic => English => Topic started by: danielfitts88 on Jul 20, 2018
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In spite of all his precautions, the narrator does not commit the perfectcrime. What trips him up?
What will be an ideal response?
Question 2
What do we know about the old man in the story? What motivates thenarrator to kill him?
What will be an ideal response?
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Answer to Question 1
- The narrator, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, has placed his chair directly above the spot where he has buried the old mans dismembered body. Distracted by what he at first calls a ringing in his ears, he then identifies it as a steady thudding sound that he interprets as the beating of the old mans heart, driving him into a frenzy and prompting him to shriek a confession of murder.
Answer to Question 2
- What little we know about him is given in the second paragraph. He is apparently kind and pleasant in nature, and he possesses some wealth. The narrator himself disavows any basis for hostility toward the old man or any desire for his gold. What motivates him is his obsession with the old mans dull, film-covered eye, and the urge to rid myself of the eye forever. In a larger context, we might note that father and son relationships in Poes stories are virtually never good. Sons want to kill fathers and fathers want to kill sons, either explicitly or implicitly. Poe felt himself to be a victimized son, first of David Poe, who abandoned him, his mother, and his sister; and later of John Allan, his oppressive foster father. Biographical information works well in understanding relationships among characters in Poes stories.