"The Tell-Tale Heart" Edgar Allan Poe

Character Analysis Direction Sheet

Directions:
Follow the directions below.
Get the graphic organizers from your teacher.
Use the book and your reading log to help you.

1. PART 1 – ANALYZE THE CHARACTER

 Graphic Organizer 1 (front) – Complete the chart with BASIC INFORMATION to determine how the narrator feels about himself and how you feel about him. Use the information from your Reading Log questions and chart (unreliable/reliable narrator) to help you fill out this chart.

Graphic Organizer 2 (back) - What kind of person is the narrator? Reread the story looking for details that reveal the nature of this strange man. Use these details to complete the chart. You must have at least 2 items in each row/section of the chart. Look for examples of both direct and indirect characterization. For the “WORDS - What He Says” section, you must write down his exact words (put quotations around them) and the pg. # and line #.

2. PART 2 – DESCRIBE THE CHARACTER

Next, complete the bubble map. Use these details from your graphic organizers to name at least 4 OF YOUR OWN adjectives describing justifiable character traits of the narrator. You are describing the narrator AS YOU SEE HIM. You should be able to justify your adjectives based on the information in your graphic organizers. Fill this information in the bubble map (see pg. 2). Do not use dead words or slang words. Use higher level, eighth-grade vocabulary.

3. PART 3 – SANE OR MAD?

Complete the graphic organizer (on the back of the bubble map) determining whether you think the narrator is sane or mad. Use text-based evidence to look at both sides. This evidence will help support your opinion. Do not use dead words or slang words. Use higher level, eighth-grade vocabulary. WORDS - What he says ACTIONS - What he does CONFLICTS - What his conflicts are MOTIVATIONS - What his motivations are for his actions

4. PART 4 – WRITE ABOUT THE CHARACTER

Finally, reread all of this data you have collected. Use this information to write an informative profile paragraph as if you are a psychiatrist or criminal profiler putting together a profile of the murderer’s personality to turn in to the police. This piece of writing must be formal. Make sure your details are clear and factual, not opinionated. You must be objective.

REQUIREMENTS
- Include the information from your graphic organizers (steps 1 and 2 on the direction sheet).
 - Point of View – write as if you are a psychiatrist or criminal profiler
- The writing must be FORMAL and OBJECTIVE, using clear, factual evidence (information from the story which was included in your graphic organizers)
 - you must include academic vocabulary (at least 2 words) ACADEMIC VOCABULARY WORDS: infer, justify, analyze, criteria, logic, motive
 - you must include vocabulary words from the story (2 words this time)