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What do you think is the role of the reader throughout "The Tell-tale Heart"?

In several of his short stories, Poe establishes the reader as being a listener, a priest receiving a confession, or an intimate friend of the narrator. This increases the "scariness" of the story, as the reader himself is somehow involved. To name a few, the listener is very present in The Black Cat, "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Oval Portrait," "The Cask of the Amontillado," and of course "The Tell-tale Heart."

Poe often explored the notion of the 'unreliable narrator'. As reader, when we have a first person narrator we expect to be able to trust them and the information they reveal as they are leading us through the story. Poe, however, enjoyed challenging this notion and in 'The Tell Tale Heart' the reader is expected to construct thereality of the story from the narrators distorted view.

The role of the reader is to thoroughly question the motives of the character and rely on the tension that is created. The reader may be misled by the writer, and much is left in doubt at the end.  It leads to great discussions, though.