First Person Narration In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe

The purpose of this essay is to show how Allen Poe affects the reader by using first person narration in "The Tell-Tale Heart". The first person narration helps the readers to connect themselves with the protagonist in the story so that the readers are able to feel and understand his actions and emotions, and sympathize with these. Without the use of first person narration, the connection between the reader and the protagonist would've broken and, therefore, the readers wouldn’t have able to feel sympathy towards to protagonist’s actions and emotions. Consequently, the readers wouldn’t have able to feel the intensity and thrill of the story, which would’ve taken away the reader’s interest in the story.
The Effect of the First Person Narration …show more content…
The story is told with details and intense emotions by the protagonist in order to get the reader’s interest to the story. In the story, the protagonist is a nervous man who likens an old man's eye to a vulture's eye which he hates. After a while, he decides to kill the old man in order to get rid of his eye forever. He plans the whole murder with caution and detail in order to not fail. In the end, he successfully kills the old man and hides his body. However, even though he thinks that he feels better, after some time, he feels guilty about what he has done. The protagonist starts to hear his own heartbeats and he thinks that those heartbeats belong to the old man's dismembered body. He thinks the old man is still alive and, therefore, he confesses his crime to the officers. The first person narration in the story allows the readers to see the logic behind the protagonist’s behaviours and sympathize with the consequence of his feelings, therefore, it helps them to empathize with the protagonist. Consequently, the use of first person narration helps the readers to participate in the story in order to pull them into the story. The use of first person narration in "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe pulls the readers into the story in order to allow them to empathize with the protagonist's actions and …show more content…
The protagonist's detailed and thrilled narration pulls the readers towards to the story and makes them feel sympathy towards to his actions which are; planning the whole murder with every single details, watching the old man eight nights before taking an action and hiding the body without leaving any clues behind. His narration allows the reader to see the logic and the intelligence behind his actions and, consequently, his narration helps him to take the readers sympathy and respect for himself. Even though he commits an unforgivable crime and kills the old man, his emotions shows the reader that he is still a human being, which makes the reader to empathize with him. Those emotions are, guilt and regret. The first person narration is significant because it helps to express the protagonist’s feelings to the readers and it enables to make the readers understand the logic and the reason behind his actions, which also allows the readers to empathize and sympathize with the