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Year 8

Symbolism in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'

I can identify and explain key symbols in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.

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Year 8

Symbolism in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'

I can identify and explain key symbols in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Symbolism is where writers use objects, characters, or elements in their work, to represent deeper ideas and themes.
  2. Poe uses the old man’s eye to symbolise intrusion, truth and moral or spiritual judgement in the story.
  3. Poe uses the heart beat to symbolise the narrator’s guilt, paranoia and time running out.
  4. Symbols allow the writer to communicate hidden or deeper meanings within the text.
  5. When writing about a writer’s use of symbolism, it is always important to discuss why it has been used.

Keywords

  • Symbolism - where writers use objects, characters, or elements in their work, to represent deeper ideas and themes

  • Spiritual judgement - the idea that people are morally-judged by a higher, spiritual being

  • Recurring - if something recurs, it repeatedly occurs - it keeps happening

  • Intrusion - when someone wrongfully enters a space they shouldn’t be - this can be physical or metaphorical space

Common misconception

Students often do not understand the depth of meaning that symbolism can provide.

Symbols communicate hidden or deeper meanings to the reader, so that they can better understand the characters or themes of the text.


To help you plan your year 8 english lesson on: Symbolism in 'The Tell-Tale Heart', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

You could print Jacob's response for Task C in learning cycle 3 and annotate it, looking at how Jacob has answered the questions on the task slide in his response.
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Equipment

You will need access to the short story 'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe. You can find a copy of this in the additional materials.

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Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
  • Depiction or discussion of serious crime
  • Depiction or discussion of mental health issues
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Supervision

Adult supervision required

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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is a symbol?
a character who represents an approach
Correct answer: an object that represents an idea
a narrative structure
an object that represents the characters
Q2.
At which points in 'The Tell-Tale Heart' does the narrator hear the beating heart of the old man?
in the beginning when he spies on the old man
Correct answer: when he sneaks into the old man's room and is hiding in wait to kill him
when the police first arrive at the house, just after he has killed the old man
Correct answer: when the police have sat down and are conversing with the narrator
Q3.
Which words are used to describe the old man's eye in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'?
Correct answer: "pale, blue, vulture-like"
"milky, white, rat-like"
"pale, opaque and eel-like"
"blue, bright, snake-like"
Q4.
Robbers intrude on people's homes. What might 'to intrude' mean?
Correct answer: to enter somewhere you are not supposed to be
to say something you are not supposed to say
to take something that is not yours
to move something away from its correct home
Q5.
How does the narrator in 'The Tell-Tale Heart' murder the old man?
he stabs him and then lets him bleed out
he strangles him with his bare hands
he hits him over the head with a floor board
Correct answer: he smothers him with his own bed
Q6.
Which of the following quotations best shows the narrator's hysteria and loss of control in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'?
"But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed."
"I bade the gentlemen welcome."
Correct answer: "Oh God! what could I do? I foamed—I raved—I swore!"
"Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. "
"You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution"

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which of the following is not a theme in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'?
guilt
death
Correct answer: family
justice
madness/sanity
Q2.
Which of the following are explanations of the symbolism of eyes in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'?
eyes represent a lack of clarity - what the narrator cannot see
eyes represent hatred and fear because the narrator hates the old man
Correct answer: eyes represent moral or spiritual judgement and this frightens the narrator
Correct answer: eyes represent truth and the idea of seeing someone for who they truly are
eyes represent guidance and support, as the eye guides the narrator
Q3.
Which of the following quotations from 'The Tell-Tale Heart' best supports the idea that the old man's eye symbolises spiritual judgement?
"I kept quite still and said nothing"
"here, here!—It is the beating of his hideous heart!”
Correct answer: "dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones"
"it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye"
Q4.
Which of the following does the sound of the beating heart in 'The Tell-Tale Heart' not symbolise?
time running out for the old man
time running out for the narrator
the narrator's intense guilt
the narrator's paranoia
Correct answer: the knock of the police on the door
Q5.
If the beating heart in 'The Tell-Tale Heart' represents the narrator's guilt, then what point might Poe be trying to suggest about guilt?
that guilt is fleeting and passes with time
that guilt is an emotion that everybody has to experience in their life
that guilt is an emotion that can be ignored in the moment
Correct answer: that guilt is inescapable and will haunt a person
that guilt always drives a person to insanity
Q6.
Why might a writer use symbolism?
to make their text more sophisticated and impressive
to make the reading experience more multi-sensory for the reader
Correct answer: to reveal hidden or deeper meanings to the reader
to reflect the various characters in the story
to move the plot along in the story

Additional material

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