Narrator

At the very beginning of the story the narrator exclaims "True!", which instantly reveals his guilt. This introduction also serves to immediately pull the reader into the story. From there, every word contributes to the purpose of moving the story forward. This is a classic example of Poe’s unity of effect. The narrator claims to have a disease which causes hypersensitivity in his sensesis. However it is unclear if the narrator actually has very acute senses or if he is merely imagining things. At the end of the story begins the reveal the narrators feelings of guilt. Despite his best efforts at defending himself, the narrator's "over acuteness of the senses," which help him hear the heart beating in the floorboards, is actually evidence that he is truly mad The narrator often repeats certain words and phrases. This helps emphasize his thought process and the order in which the events happend. The effect of repetition also indicates the "acuteness of his senses". The repition of “very, very” intensifies the description of emotions and actions by the narrator. The reptition of sentence structures also gives the narrator a sense of madness. For example "I foamed - I raved - I swore!" and "They heard! - they suspected! - they knew!" The narrator murders the old man because he is afraid the beating of the old mans heart will disturb the neighbours. However in reality the sound of a beating heart is probably his own. The narrator implies it was not his intial motive to murder the old man but to remove his eye that is almost haunting him. However this is not enitrely convincing. The narrator knows that the reader will think he is mad in the first line of the story: “...why will you say that I am mad'” he queries. He or she tries to convince the reader of his sanity but in doing so only confirms his obvious insanity.