Practice Summative Assessment RL 8.3 (Dialogue and Incidents that Propel Action,
Reveal Aspects of a Character, and/or Provoke a Decision)
Heart of Darkness Common Core Unit
8th Grade English Language Arts
RL 8.3 Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character,
or provoke a decision.
Task: Read Edgar A. Poe’s ”The Black Cat” and then answer the following short answer response.
(1) What is the significance of the following lines in propelling the action, revealing aspects of character, and/or provoking a
decision?
"Gentlemen," I said at last, as the party ascended the steps, "I delight to have allayed your suspicions. I wish you all health, and a
little more courtesy. By the bye, gentlemen, this -- this is a very well constructed house." (In the rabid desire to say something easily,
I scarcely knew what I uttered at all.) -- "I may say an excellently well constructed house. These walls -- are you going, gentlemen? -these walls are solidly put together;" and here, through the mere phrenzy of bravado, I rapped heavily, with a cane which I held in
my hand, upon that very portion of the brick-work behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my bosom.
Rubric:
Advanced
Analyzes how the lines of
dialogue/events in a story
propel the action, reveal
aspects of character, and/or
provoke a decision in a
sophisticated manner,
citing several examples of
text.
Meeting
Analyzes how the lines of
dialogue/events in a story
propel the action, reveal
aspects of character, and/or
provoke a decision, citing a
few examples of text
support.
Progressing
Attempts to analyze how the
lines of dialogue/events in a
story propel the action, reveal
aspects of character, and/or
provoke a decision, citing a
few examples of text support.
Student Response
Student Name:
Not Meeting
Unable to analyze how the
lines of dialogue/events in a
story propel the action,
reveal aspects of character,
and/or provoke a decision,
citing a few examples of
text support.
The above quote from Edgar A. Poe’s “The Black Cat” is a line of dialogue that both propels the action of the story, while
also revealing aspects of character.
First, the lines of dialogue propel the plot in the text. The quote is a reference to the scene right after the narrator kills his wife and walls her
up in the cellar of the basement. The police appear four days after the murder to search the premises, in particular the cellar. The narrator
spoke these words just as the cops were ascending the stairs (“Are you going gentleman?”) and preparing to leave the narrator’s house
because they did not find any evidence that warranted suspicion. The narrator stops the police officers to draw attention to the excellent
construction of the house, in particular the wall from behind which he had buried his dead wife. “These walls -- are you going, gentlemen? -these walls are solidly put together." Now, the second that he “rapped heavily with a cane I held in my hand,” the story propels forward
quickly and in the next scene, there is a shriek heard from behind that same exact wall from which he was tapping his cane. As readers, we
know the shriek is from the black cat that pushed the narrator to kill his wife. At the sound of the shriek, the cops tear down the wall to find
the corpse of the narrator’s wife. This propels the story forward and “consigned me to the hangman.” Ultimately, the second that the
narrator stops the policemen from departing and instead draws attention to the wall, he ushers forth his demise (downfall). Perhaps the
rapping sound awakened the black cat to shriek.
“No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence, than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb! -- by a cry, at first
muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and
inhuman -- a howl -- a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats
of the dammed in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.”
As the story is propelled forward with this scene, the dramatic irony is also heightened because we as readers know exactly what is behind
the wall and we know that his tapping would only get him into further trouble.
The lines of dialogue also reveal aspects of character. This scene shows the confident, proud nature of the narrator. He is about to get
away with the murder, but through the “phrenzy of bravado” the narrator draws attention to the very wall from behind which he buried his
wife. This was not the first time that we saw the narrator take satisfaction in his murderous deed. As soon as he walled up his wife and
cleaned up the evidence, he states, “I looked around triumphantly” and later he states, “The glee at my heart was too strong to be restrained.
I burned to say if but one word, by way of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness.” It’s almost as if the
narrator is taking pride in his “work of art” of burying his wife. The narrator was so confident, almost too confident that he tapped with his
cane on the wall; this echoes the narrator in the “Tell Tale Heart” and his confidence to have the policemen sit on the floorboards—the same
floorboards from which he buried the old man beneath. The narrator never shows an ounce of sadness around the cops as they are
searching, and this scene captures his pride rather than his remorse or sadness for the death of his wife.
The above lines of dialogue propelled the story; it brought about the narrator’s guilt with the cops and further revealed a proud narrator,
one who must be “mad” to draw attention to the very sight of his murder. He practically gave himself away being too proud.