fragmented sentences, and attempts to describe his supernatural sense of hearing. The narrator is also determined to prove his sanity, which contributes to his defensive, agitated tone. He believes that his audience is doubting him, and he is determined to prove them wrong. The narrator ends the first paragraph by stating that he will prove his sanity by calmly telling the story of how he murdered the old man. The narrator's claim is ironic, because he is anything but composed.

As the story develops, the narrator continues to speak in an anxious, uneasy tone, which highlights his mental instability and contributes to the unsettling mood of the narrative. The short, abrupt sentences reveal the narrator's troubled mindset, and the ominous diction emphasizes his insanity. The audience associates words like "madness," "haunted," "evil," and "darkness" with the narrator's disturbed psyche and finds the description of his crime particularly unsettling. Throughout the story, the narrator continually attempts to persuade the reader that he is a rational, sane person, which also creates a desperate, pleading tone. Towards the end of the story, the narrator elaborates on his interaction with the police officers in a frantic tone by saying,

Oh God! what could I do? I foamed—I raved—I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder—louder—louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!—no, no! They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a mockery of my horror!—this I thought, and this I think. (Poe, 8)

Overall, the unreliable narrator of Poe's classic short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" utilizes a defensive, agitated tone and gives the impression that he is a desperate, mentally insane individual.

The narrator believes his tone to be persuasive and calm, as he is trying to convince someone that he is not crazy. In the first line, he asks,

True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them.

He describes how perceptive his senses have become, especially his hearing, saying, "I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?" He believes that this acuteness of his senses is evidence of how healthy he is, and he believes that he can tell his story "calmly." However, the fact that he believes he can hear what's happening in heaven and hell, and even everything on the earth itself, is pretty crazy-sounding, and the sheer number of exclamation points used in the story—forty-three—makes it seem as though "calm" is not exactly the right word to describe his tone!

Instead, the narrator's tone is somewhat aggressive, excitable, and even manic. His many, many references to his auditor make him sound aggressive, especially in the first three paragraphs, where he addresses "you" seven times. His mania and aggression are both apparent in the third paragraph, which begins,

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!

In these lines, he is obviously trying to sound convincing, addressing his auditor directly three times, though this makes him sound aggressive. The abbreviated structure of the first three sentences also makes him seem manic. He is very excitable.

The narrator’s tone is arrogant and excited.  He is excitable because he is mentally unstable.  Yet he is arrogant enough to believe he is right.

The narrator in “The Tell-tale Heart” is an unreliable narrator.  We realize from his tone that he is mad.  The narrator is obsessive and paranoid. He describes the killing of his roommate and the consequences in a matter-of-fact way, but in a very excited way.

The narrator goes to great lengths to prove that he is not mad, but almost everything he says confirms that he is not in his right mind.  He tells us that he had nothing at all against the old man.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.  Object there was none. Passion there was none. (enotes etext p. 4)

Yet the old man has to die!  The narrator explains that it is because he has an evil eye.  We can’t let that stand!

Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly—very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. (p. 4)

The narrator painstakingly describes how it took him an hour to stick his head in the door.  He is thoroughly excited.  An example of this tone is the use of exclamation points and words like “Ha!” with short, choppy sentences. 

The tone of the story is a choice made by Poe to ensure that his narrator seems mad, but nearly lucid.  The narrator is obsessed and excitable, but there is enough normalcy there that it makes the ending more believable.  We realize that this man could hold a conversation with the police without arousing suspicion for only a short time, and he would not realize it when they began to suspect him because he is so arrogant.

The tone also adds to the suspense, because we know that this arrogant and excitable man is up to something.  Early on we are told that he killed the man, and the tone makes us interested in learning how.

The narrator's tone in this story is quite overwrought, leading to a climax at the end when he shrieks out his confession to murder. He is disturbed in his mind, and this is conveyed in his nervous agitated manner. He often gives way to exclamations, although he also tries to speak quite rationally and logically. He also addresses the reader directly on several occasions, creating the sense of a more intimate and close audience. This psychologically intense tone conveyed through first-person narrative is common to several of Poe's short stories like 'The Black Cat' and 'Berenice', which also feature acts of murder and mutilation by obviously psychologically-disturbed individuals.

The narrator's tone is defensive (which means, he seems to be defending himself in an argument).  It almost feels like he has been accused of being a nervous and insane person, and his tale is his defensive response to that accusation.  From the very get-go, he agrees that he is indeed a nervous person,

"but why will you say that I am mad?...How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story."

He insists he isn't mad, and in his defense, seems to be saying, "Looky here.  I'm going to tell you this story, and tell it so calmly that after I am done, you'll know I am not mad...a crazy person wouldn't be able to tell you such a story so calmly."  So his tone from the beginning is defensive and almost pleading for the reader to find him sane.  He continues along this vein, inserting throughout his entire tale assurances such as:

"Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!"

almost as if it is impossible for an insane person to work in such a wise, cautious and logical way.  The reader is left feeling like he is being haranged by someone who is whining and defending himself against some crime, and trying to get out of the blame for it, but the blame here is the accusation of madness, not murder.  He openly confesses to murder; it is the assumption of madness that bothers him, and he spends his entire tale trying to defend himself against that charge.  Kind-of an interesting character, and he certainly makes the story more interesting.  I hope that helps.  Good luck!

Edgar Allan Poe uses first-person narration in his classic short story "The Tell-Tale Heart." Readers can easily discern the type of narration by noticing the narrator's use of the personal pronouns "I" and "my" as he tells the story from his point of view. The unnamed narrator attempts to prove his sanity as he recounts the events surrounding his violent crime. As is often the case with Poe's first-person narratives, the context surrounding the narrator is missing, and the reader is not sure where the narrator is located or who he is addressing, which contributes to the ambiguity and vagueness of the story.

Throughout the story, the narrator unsuccessfully tries to convince the reader that he is sane and ironically portrays himself as a mentally unstable, paranoid individual. There are numerous red flags that reveal that the narrator is mentally ill, beginning with his staccato, fragmented style and insistence on his sanity. The reader wonders why a rational person would comment on their sanity and speak in such a nervous, agitated tone.

The narrator also admits that he has supernatural hearing, makes contradicting statements, and is primarily motivated to kill the old man because of his pale blue eye. The narrator attempts to prove his sanity by recalling the caution and foresight he took in executing the seemingly perfect murder. However, the narrator betrays himself when the overwhelming guilt of his crime weighs heavily on his conscience to the point that he confesses to the police. By utilizing first-person narration, Poe psychologically explores the troubled mind of a murderer, and readers are left with a variety of interpretations about the vague, intriguing story.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is told from the first-person point of view of the murderer. As he narrates the story, we experience the events as he understands them and wishes to present them. This makes him an unreliable narrator, and this unreliability is reinforced by his stated aim of telling the story to convince the reader he is not insane.

His narration is therefore ironic: while he is trying to convince us of his sanity, the actions he describes are those of an unhinged personality. First, he has a strange obsession with the old man he takes care of. He stalks and spies on him at night, and has a bizarre fixation with what he considers the old man's "vulture" eye. When he kills him, he offers no reasonable explanation.

Second, he becomes strangely convinced after the police arrive, search the house, and believe his story that he can hear the heart of the murdered man beating louder and louder under the floorboards and becomes equally convinced that the police can hear it too. This perception is clearly delusional.

His point-of-view also emerges from a sense of myopia that creates claustrophobia. We are placed very close to the action of the story while being given no context that would help us to make sense of it. Who is the old man? Why is the narrator his caretaker? Where does the story take place? This lack of detail adds to the nightmarish quality of the narrative.

The point of view of this story is first person objective.  This means that the narrator is a participant in the story and uses the first person pronoun "I."  The "objective" portion of the label refers to the timing of the narration.  An objective narrator relates the events after they have concluded, as opposed to a subjective narrator, who relates events as they occur.  You can tell that the narrator is objective because he uses mostly past tense verbs to describe the action (instead of the present tense verbs used by a subjective narrator).

There are times when the narrator does switch into second person.  For example, he says, "You fancy me mad.  Madmen know nothing.  But you should have seen me.  You should have seen how wisely I proceeded [...]."  This narrator has had time to reflect on his experiences, one of the benefits of an objective narrator, and he is trying to influence our perception of events because he realizes what we might think (i.e. that he is crazy).  His use of the second person pronoun "you" indicates this switch.

The narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" shares the story from his own, personal perspective; thus the story is told in a first-person point of view. By using personal pronouns such as I, me, and my, the narrator is able to tell his tale as only he can experience it. Any other point of view, like omniscient, for example, would give the audience a look into the minds of other characters in the story, not just the narrator's.

The first-person point of view is what makes this story so chilling. At the beginning of the story, the narrator asserts that he is not "mad" but instead completely sane. As the story progresses, the reader comes to realize that he is truly insane and is therefore an unreliable narrator: his words cannot be trusted. The demented views of this narrator give the audience a disturbing look into the mind of a seriously sadistic person, and adds to the author's overall haunting tone.

The tone of Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is one of an unhinged excitement by the narrator as he explains how he murders his housemate. Additionally, the narration also carries a tone of desperation as the narrator attempts to justify why he had to kill the old, harmless man. As the narrator recounts the events leading up to his decision to kill the old man, the process of killing him, and the events of the police searching the house, the tone reflects the changes of events. With this recounting, the narrator's voice shifts from a more cunning excitement to a cruel enjoyment of recounting the murder to one of absolute desperation and panic as the narrator can not get the sound of the old man's heart beating out of his frenzied and guilty mind.

For much of this macabre story the narrator's tone seems boastful and proud. He is pleased with how carefully, and with what discipline he has carried out the murder of the old man.

"You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!"

The repetition in this quotation, of the phrase "with what," suggests that the tone of voice is excited, a suggestion compounded by the exclamation mark. The narrator seems barely able to contain his excitement as he recounts his own preparations for the murder.

The narrative tone also becomes a little sadistic, as the narrator admits to having "chuckled at the idea" of the old man lying awake and fearful in bed, listening for ominous sounds in the darkness. The word "chuckled" is usually a word one would associate with harmless, playful fun, so its use in this context is very peculiar, and points to the sadism of the narrator. The same word is used again, when the narrator admits to having "chuckled at heart" when he stood over the old man, in the dark, contemplating his murder.

In the first part of the story the narrator's tone then is what one might expect of a psychopath—boastful, callous, sadistic. However, in the final part of the story, the tone changes dramatically. With the police officers in attendance, and the old man's heart beating beneath the floorboards, and ringing in the murderer's ears, the tone becomes agitated and overwrought. The language is broken down into short, exclamatory clauses ("I raved - I swore! ... They heard! - They suspected! - They knew!") and, describing the beating heart beneath the floorboards, we have the relentless repetition of "Louder! Louder! Louder! Louder!" The relentlessness of the repetition here almost onomatopoeically echoes the beating of the old man's heart, and, by extension, the throbbing of the murderer's conscience. The composed, boastful tone of earlier has been replaced with a tone which is desperate, overwrought and frenzied.

Tone refers to the specific attitude the author took with regard to a character, place or topic. The reader understands the author's intended meaning, feeling and perspective created in the text because of the tone. In Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" the author created a frantic, sinister and nervous tone. This helps the reader understand the main character's state of mind with regard to his own sanity and belief that the heart of the person he killed haunts him with its beating sound.

The pace of the writing with its short, choppy sentences and exclamations adds to the frantic tone of the text. The narrator refers often to the question of his sanity, further adding to the frantic nature of the writing. The frantic tone in the beginning leads way to a sinister tone as the narrator describes the way in which he killed and hid the old man. As the police arrive, the narrator returns to a frantic tone. This time, rather than attempting to convince the reader of his sanity, he is driven to the point of madness by the sound of the dead man's beating heart that he believes he hears.

The overarching sense of anxiety and nervousness characterizes the tone and mood in the atmosphere of "The Tell-Tale Heart."  The narrator begins the story by trying to convince the reader that he is not mad, and later in the story, he continues to try to make the reader believe that he is sane.  The narrator is nervous that he in fact might be mad, and his anxiety causes him to behave in irrational ways--namely, by plotting to kill the old man.  Similarly, at the end of the story, the narrator puts on a show for the police officers by parading them around the house to show that nothing has gone amiss during the night.  But the narrator harbors anxiety over his crime, and his own nervous guilt causes him to eventually tear up the floor and give himself away to the police.  

As was mentioned in the previous post, Poe utilizes first-person narration throughout his short story "The Tell-Tale Heart." The reader can tell that the story is being told from the narrator's point of view by the use of the personal pronouns "I" and "my." This short story is not told using third-person narration because Poe does not describe the protagonist as "he" or "she." The first-person narrator also speaks directly to the reader by referring to the audience as "you." In this excerpt from the short story, one can tell that Poe utilizes first-person narration by the use of the personal pronoun "I." Poe writes,

You may think I became afraid. But no. The darkness in his room was thick and black. I knew he could not see the opening of the door. I continued to push the door, slowly, softly. I put in my head. I put in my hand, with the covered light (2).

The paranoid, mentally ill narrator is also unreliable throughout the short story. Interestingly, Poe offers no physical description of the narrator.

Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" was written in first person.

A first person point of view (or narration) is told from the speaker's point of view, is about the life of the speaker, and uses the pronouns "I", "my", and "me."

On a side note, second person point of views are relatively difficult to master given they tell the reader's story (using the pronouns "you" and "yours" and can alienate the reader if the story does not or could not apply to him or her). Third person point of views are where the narrator is telling the story of another character/s (using the pronouns he/she, his/ her, they/them).

That said, the opening lines of the story denote it as being from a first person point of view.

TRUE!—NERVOUS—VERY, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them.

Here, the speaker uses the pronouns "I" and "my." Through this use of pronouns, the point of view is defined as first person. Curiously enough, the speaker is telling "you" the reader about the circumstances regarding him, the old man, and the old man's eye. This defines the first person point of view even more (one can almost picture the speaker sitting in front of them telling of the horrific tale).

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is told from the first-person perspective of a madman who is the caretaker of an old man.  This narrator says that he suffers from a disease that has caused him to develop acute senses, but it is clear from his obsession with sounds that he is mad.  Thus, the narrator is unreliable, so the reader must sort through the facts in the story to figure out the truth.  From the narrator's point of view, the old man's eye for some reason has plagued him, and he thinks that he should kill the old man.  The narrator makes his plot seem reasonable; however, he offers no "justifiable" reason for his actions.  So, the point of view in the story is a first-person unreliable perspective, which creates an engaging dynamic for the reader to analyze.

As was mentioned in the previous posts, the short story is told in the first-person. First-person narration uses the personal pronouns "I" and "my" throughout the text. The first few sentences of the story reveal that Poe is utilizing a first-person narrator. Poe writes,

"It's true! Yes, I have been ill, very ill. But why do you say that I have lost control of my mind, why do you say that I am mad?" (1).

The are various tones throughout the short story. Towards the beginning of the story, the narrator describes his acute sense of hearing and discusses his sanity. The tone is somewhat perplexing and ominous. The tone becomes exciting during the narrator's attack on the old man then changes to arrogant as he delights in his accomplishment. The tone then shifts to paranoid and nervous as the narrator attempts to make the heartbeat stop. The combination of various tones creates a tense and thrilling atmosphere throughout the story that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.

I would like to add that the tone is derived from a combination of glimpses of almost flawless strategies from a sane, brilliant master-mind of a perfect murder mixed in with those of a paranoid, guilt-ridden insane individual who fears being caught.  As the story progresses, the guilt overshadows the sane demeanor and results in the confession of the murder.  The first person perspective helps us to get into the mind of this severely distrubed narrator.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is told from the first person point of view of the murderer and has a tone that is paranoid, frightened and guilty all at the same time.  He is increasingly agitated as the story progresses increasing the readers sense of dread.

The story is told from a first person point of view by a narrator who, in an understandably nervous tone, is relating how he committed the murder.

If one is to retell the story from the point of view of the old man's heart, then one may wish to examine the passage in which Poe's narrator mentions that his thumb slips as he is about to open the lantern to look in on the old man (sixth paragraph):

...and the old man sprang up in bed, crying out, 'Who's there?'  I kept quite still and said nothing.  For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down.  He was still sitting up in the bed listening--just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall.

Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror.  It was not a groan of pain or of grief.  Oh, no!  It was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe.  I knew the sound well.  Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it haswelled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me...

Poe's narrator goes on to explain that the "mournful influence of the unperceived shadow" causes the old man to "feel thepresence of my head within the room."

It seems, therefore, if one is to change the point of view to the heart of the old man, that one may go from the perspective of feeling/sensing what the narrator is doing.  For, Poe suggests that there is a duality to the narrator and his victim, does he not?

The first person point of view in “The Tell-tale Heart” is very important because it contributes to the suspense.  We are aware that the narrator is mad even though he tries to convince us he is not.

The narrator goes out of his way to tell us how clever he is.  He knows he seems crazy, but he points out that he had to act and kill the old man because of his evil eye.

The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. (p. 4)

The first person point of view allows us to be inside the head of the narrator, and we can feel the suspense deepen as he continues his descent into madness.

Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," is written in the first person. This means that the protagonist, or main character, writes from his own point of view, using words like "me," "I," "my," and more.

The very first sentence of the story shows this: "True! - Nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous i had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" This opening sentence shows that the character is speaking from his own point of view, rather than using a third person narrator or other person to tell the story.

Poe likely writes this story in the first person so that the reader has the opportunity to really look into the character's mind. As the reader goes through the story, it is easy to tell how the character is obviously crazy to begin with and only getting worse.

[The original question had to be edited to form just one question]

Told from the first-person point of view, the young man who narrates, strongly identifies himself with the old man who lives with him. More specifically, he and the old man, who possesses a dead eye that resembles that of a vulture, become preoccupied with a death-watch in their psychological terror of the consequences of time. In a perverse effort to stop the terror of the narrator's own "I," he kills the old man, whom he professes to love, but states that 

...it was not the old man who vexed me but his Evil Eye.....I knew what the old man felt, and I pitied him although I chuckled at heart.

After he kills the old man, the narrator states that the "heart beat on with a  muffled sound." Nevertheless, he buries the old man beneath the boards of the room only to discover that he can yet hear the beats of the heart. These beats, of course, are those of the narrator himself. Finally, the narrator can no longer stand the pounding of the heart--his own heart--and he confesses to his crime.