Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories Using Quotations and Evidence

Assignment:   Using three well-chosen quotations as your evidence, and following each of the three techniques given above, write a substantial, unified paragraph (at least 5 to 8 sentences) that answers only one of the following questions.  Be sure to frame and introduce your quotations effectively, including some brief mention of their context, and also make certain that you provide some brief commentary or discussion of each quotation which supports your paragraph’s main focus.  Please also use the MLA method to integrate and cite the quotations.

Topics

Choose only one of the following prompts as the basis of your paragraph:

A) Why does the narrator of the “Tell-Tale Heart” keep protesting his sanity rather than his innocence? What does this indicate?

B) Why does the narrator’s own mind and true feelings seem to be a mystery to him in “The Tell-Tale Heart”?  Is his lack of self-awareness the cause or result of his homicidal tendencies?

C) Whose heart is the narrator of the “Tell-Tale Heart” actually hearing near the end of the story?  What is the significance of this mishearing?

D)  Discuss, using evidence from the text, Poe’s narrator’s manipulations and mendacity, particularly as it reveals itself in his deceit with Fortunato and his servants in “Cask of Amontillado.” What does his duplicity with these people reveal about his character?  

E) What is the significance of the trowel that Montresor waves in Fortunato’s face after being requested to show a secret sign that he is a “mason”?

F)  Why does the narrator of the “Black Cat” try to make excuses for himself by invoking “Perversity” as a motivation? Is this convincing?

G) Is the second cat real or a hallucination in “The Black Cat”?  What are the implications of your choice?

Please note that your paragraph should have an original title, which you should place on the title page and not at the top of the page on which your paragraph appears, and that it should also include (on a separate sheet) a Works Cited list, which should conform to MLA g