TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.
What might the reader conclude about the narrator of this story from these opening paragraphs?
Responses
A The narrator feels great remorse for his actions.The narrator feels great remorse for his actions.
B The narrator's claims of sanity seem to be a case of him"protesting too much."The narrator's claims of sanity seem to be a case of him"protesting too much."
C The narrator has great spiritual insight, but doesn't wish to share it with the reader.The narrator has great spiritual insight, but doesn't wish to share it with the reader.
D The narrator clearly isn't crazy, because he seemingly had good reason to do what he did.
1 answer
B The narrator's claims of sanity seem to be a case of him "protesting too much."
In the opening paragraphs, the narrator insists on his sanity while describing his acute nervousness and obsessive thoughts about the old man's eye. This contradiction suggests that his claims may be unreliable and that he may, in fact, be mad.
