All the while, narrators from both stories give themselves self-empowerment (Wing-Chi, 27). In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” he speaks with bold authority to the reader and says that he “heard all things in the heaven and the earth.” (Poe, Implying he knows what he is talking about and needs no other’s help. Then, the narrator begins by asking the reader a question, “but why will you say that I am mad?” (Kennedy 37), or declare, “mad I am not” (Poe 64), and proceed to retell their story. Along with these question, there is a sense of anxiety, and the narrators become more obsessed with the physical attributes of those they have faults with (Badenhausen 492). However, there are other theorists who will say that Poe’s main characters could be considered
