Edgar Allan Poe: Unraveling the Tales of Mystery and Madness

Posted on Feb 19, 2025 in English

The Pit and the Pendulum

  1. The narrator was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition. (True)
  2. The narrator suffered torture. (True)
  3. Large rats crawled over his body. (True)
  4. The pendulum descended slowly. (True)

Questions:

  1. What terrified the narrator the most when he first woke up in the dark? To be buried alive.
  2. What did the narrator discover in the center of the dungeon? He discovered a deep pit.
  3. How did the narrator break the leather strap? He put some meat on his body, and the rats ate through it.
  4. Who saved the narrator? A French general saved him.

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

  1. The narrator was an expert on Mesmerism. (True)
  2. The narrator wanted to see if a person who was about to die could be mesmerized. (True)
  3. M. Valdemar was still mesmerized. (True)
  4. Mesmerism kept M. Valdemar from dying completely. (True)

Questions:

  1. What were some of the reasons why the narrator thought that M. Valdemar would be a good subject for his experiment? Because he was going to die and he had no family in America.
  2. What part of M. Valdemar’s body was affected by his disease? His lungs.
  3. What signs of death did M. Valdemar show while he was Mesmerized? His eyes moved back, his jaw fell, and his tongue was black.
  4. What was the last sign of life that M. Valdemar showed? He talked.

The Black Cat

  1. The narrator loved animals. (True)
  2. The narrator felt terrible for having cut out Pluto’s eye. (True)
  3. The spirit of the Perverse tells us to do things that we know we should not do. (True)
  4. The narrator did not realize that he had buried the black cat along with his wife’s body. (True)

Questions:

  1. What did the narrator’s wife say that the black cat really was? A witch in disguise.
  2. Why did the narrator’s personality change so drastically? Because he drank.
  3. What happened to the white area on the black cat’s breast? It looked like the gallows.
  4. Why did the narrator kill his wife? Because he was trying to kill the cat.

The Oval Portrait

  1. The narrator was not well when he went into the castle. (True)
  2. The girl became ill when her husband started the portrait. (True)
  3. The girl never told her husband that she was suffering. (True)
  4. Everybody loved the painting. (True)

Questions:

  1. Where was the old castle? In the Apennine Mountains in Italy.
  2. What was the book that the narrator found about? The book was about the paintings of the castle.
  3. Why did the girl hate art? Because her husband was always painting, and she was not with him.
  4. What happened to the artist’s wife when he finished the painting? She died.

The Tell-Tale Heart

  1. The narrator became nervous because he had been physically ill. (True)
  2. The narrator didn’t know that he had a mental problem of some sort. (True)
  3. The narrator used a mattress to kill the old man. (True)
  4. The police came because a neighbor had heard a scream. (True)

Questions:

  1. Why did the narrator decide to kill the old man? Because he hated the old man’s eye.
  2. Why did the narrator finally decide to attack and kill the old man? Because he was afraid that the beating of his heart would wake up the neighbor.
  3. How did he hide the old man’s body? He cut it into pieces and put it under the floor.
  4. Why did the narrator finally tell the police where he had hidden the body? Because he thought they were laughing and smiling at him.