The Tell-Tale Heart | Characters
Narrator
The narrator of ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart’’ recounts his murder of an old man. Since he tells the story in first-person, the reader cannot determine how much of what he says is true; thus, he is an unreliable narrator. Though he repeatedly states that he is sane, the reader suspects otherwise from his bizarre reasoning, behavior, and speech. He speaks with trepidation from the famous first line of the story: ‘‘True—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?'' The reader soon realizes...
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