Instructions for the Activity:
1.Distribute the Parts: Assign each group
one of the five parts listed above.
2.Group Discussion: Each group reads their
part, discusses the content, and predicts what
happens before and after their section. They
should consider the development of the plot,
characterization, and the setting.
3.Class Presentation: After the discussions,
each group presents their section along with
their predictions. The class will then piece
together the entire story and discuss how
accurately they predicted the events.
Part 2: The Nightly Watch
•Text Excerpt:
• Middle: "Ha! — would a madman have been
so wise as this? ... So you see he would
have been a very profound old man, indeed,
to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I
looked in upon him while he slept."
•Summary: The narrator continues to detail
how he carefully observes the old man each
night for a week, waiting for the right moment
to act. He believes that his meticulous planning
proves he is not mad.
Part 3: The Eighth Night and the Old
Man’s Fear
•Text Excerpt:
• Middle: "Upon the eighth night I was more
than usually cautious in opening the door... I
knew that he had been lying awake ever
since the first slight noise, when he had
turned in the bed."
•Summary: On the eighth night, the narrator is
more cautious but accidentally makes a noise,
waking the old man. The old man is terrified,
and the narrator relishes in his fear, waiting for
the right moment to strike.
Part 4: The Murder
•Text Excerpt:
• Middle to End: "When I had waited a long
time, very patiently, without hearing him lie
down, I resolved to open a little... Yes, he
was stone, stone dead. His eye would
trouble me no more."
•Summary: The narrator finally sees the old
man’s open eye and is filled with fury. He kills
the old man by suffocating him with the bed
and dismembers the body, hiding it under the
floorboards.
Part 5: The Police Arrival and the Narrator’s
Confession
•Text Excerpt:
• End: "When I had made an end of these labors,
it was four o ‘clock — still dark as midnight...
'Villains!' I shrieked, 'dissemble no more! I
admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here,
here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!'"
•Summary: The police arrive after a neighbor
hears a scream. The narrator confidently shows
them around the house, but as they stay longer,
he begins to hear the beating of the old man’s
heart. The sound drives him to confess the murder.
Part 1: The Narrator's Madness and the Vulture
Eye
•Text Excerpt:
• Beginning: "True! — nervous — very, very
dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why
will you say that I am mad? ... It took me an hour
to place my whole head within the opening so far
that I could see him as he lay upon his bed."
•Summary: The narrator insists on his sanity while
describing his obsession with the old man's "vulture
eye." He reveals his plan to kill the old man because
of this eye and describes how he cautiously watches
