The mood of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story was carefully crafted through use of the narrator who made the reader feel both on edge and dull. The story starts abruptly by giving no context to the reader, it starts with an unsettling phrase to which leaves the reader puzzled. The narrator shouts, “True --nervous-- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”(Poe). Throughout the story, the narrator continually attempts to prove himself normal to the reader. Even after describing his actions that society would categorize as insane, such as killing a person. The narrator talks into great detail about how exactly he killed the old man, but then suggests he is not mad because he was careful during the process which made him intelligent. His exact words were, “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body”(Poe). This paints a mood of being on edge because the motive behind the killing was solely based upon how the man 's eye watched him. This allows the reader to let their mind wander to what exactly about the eye made him so upset, leaving them suspenseful. The dull part of the story was presented by the actual killing of the man and the precautions the narrator took in order to get away with it(up until he admitted it). All in all, after the reading of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, it is safe to say most readers will be left with an unsettling feeling and many