Question 1Read the opening of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart in the linked public-domain primary text. The narrator insists on calm storytelling while repeatedly interrupting and questioning an addressed listener, claims extraordinary hearing, and presents careful preparation for murder as proof of wisdom. Analyse how this defence can undermine its own credibility. Avoid diagnosing a real medical condition from a fictional voice.4 indicative marks
Read the opening of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart in the linked public-domain primary text. The narrator insists on calm storytelling while repeatedly interrupting and questioning an addressed listener, claims extraordinary hearing, and presents careful preparation for murder as proof of wisdom. Analyse how this defence can undermine its own credibility. Avoid diagnosing a real medical condition from a fictional voice.
Cambridge 2027: Partial conceptual match
l-poe primary opening through the seven-night preparation read; address, hearing claims and planning logic verified. The Tell-Tale Heart is StoriesVolume3 selection2 p21. Primary collected edition differs from exam anthology; no fabricated quotation/diagnosis. Bounded original practice; no teacher approval or full topic coverage inferred.
- 9695: AO2: Analyse language, form and structure
- 9695: AO3: Evidence-based personal interpretation
- 9695: 2027: Paper 2 Section A: Stories of Ourselves, Volume 3: Selected Stories (2027-2028 selection); selected list: The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe
AI-assisted placement. Independent teacher approval pending.
Show indicative guidance
Worked guidance
- Separate what the narrator says from what the telling allows a reader to infer. The opening is a defence that asks its listener to accept its own test of sanity: skilled planning and heightened sensation. Yet broken, emphatic syntax complicates the assertion of calmness, and careful murder preparation does not validate moral or perceptual judgement. A reader may find both control and instability, so unreliability need not mean every reported detail is false. No specific psychiatric diagnosis is supplied or required. This is only the opening, not a whole-story or whole-anthology essay.
Self-marking points
View marking points
- Direct questions make the account a persuasive address to a listener rather than detached reporting.
- Repetitions and interruptions can jar with the explicit claim to calm control.
- Extraordinary hearing claims invite doubt about the narrator's criteria for trustworthy perception.
- Methodical planning does not logically establish sound judgement; the chosen proof can expose a disturbing gap between cunning and reason.
Examiner tip
Indicative points for this original short task, not an official essay band. Support each inference; other well-evidenced answers may be valid.