Seventh Graders Hold Court
Does the heart “tell tales” of a guilty conscience, or is it simply madness?
In English teacher Ms. Neves’ class, Burke’s seventh graders held a trial for the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” to determine whether they are guilty of first-degree murder or innocent by reason of insanity. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is part of the seventh graders’ short story unit, where they closely examine suspense, foreshadowing, and unreliable narration.
The mock trial featured witnesses (characters in the story), lawyers, a jury of twelve, and a county clerk. A professional lawyer was invited as a guest to observe the proceedings and acted as the judge. Using the text as evidence, the lawyers presented opening and closing statements and grilled witnesses at the stand, while the jurors took notes and discussed their decisions.
But both the prosecution and the defense held their own—so much so that the trial resulted in a hung jury!
Was the narrator sane and reliable? We may never truly know!