Tell Tale Heart is a short horror story by EA Poe told from the first-person perspective and depicts the murder of an old man. The main character plots the crime because (assuming the narrator is male) he is irritated by the old man's "evil eye". The narrator kills the old man in his sleep, dismembers the body, and hides the body parts under the floorboards. The main character goes unsuspected until he confesses to the murder to the police believing that everyone can hear the dead man's heartbeat from under the floor. Tell-Tale Heart is not a confession but an apology. The killer seeks to demonstrate that the horrific crime, however irrational it may seem to readers, was planned and executed in a calculated and premeditated manner. The narrator tries to convince readers that he was aware of his motives, actions, and intentions. Furthermore, he points out, there was no sign of permanent or temporary mental disorder, let alone insanity. However, the choice of point of view, tone and mood of the Tell-Tale Heart allow Poe to create the opposite effect and convince readers that the story is the tale of a madman. The psychological effect of the first-person narrative, tone and symbolism allowed Poe to increase the creepy effect of the story. Poe's chosen point of view also makes readers feel as if the mad narrator is addressing each reader personally. A wide range of stylistic devices are employed to make the story scary from the start. "REAL! - nervous - very, terribly nervous I had been and am; but why will you say I'm crazy?" (Poe 3). In the opening line Poe chooses the mode of narration that determines the structure of the entire story. The Tell-Tale Heart i...... middle of paper ...... and the possible justification of the narrator's crime, the dramatic impact of the tale is intensified. As the story unfolds, the narrator makes several attempts to change the point of view from “I – ​​the criminal” to “I – ​​the nervous narrator” and detach himself from the events of the story by inviting readers to become witnesses and accomplices. In the story, a close link is drawn between the choice of language, tone, symbolism and the mental state of the narrator. The narrator's vivid descriptions of visual and auditory perception, reflected in the symbolism of the story, amplify the dramatic effect. In these circumstances the pulsation of the heart becomes the only tangible component of the narrative, giving pulsation to the entire text and leading to revelation. The story ends abruptly, intensifying the impression of a madman's tale.