“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a very smart and extremely well written and immersive. It brings the reader into the thought processes of the narrator. A primary way the author does this is through the use of repetition. At the very being of the story we are introduced to our narrator who questions the reader multiple times, asking if he is “mad”. I believe that this is the start to our understanding of just how insane our narrator may be. The word “mad” continues to be repeated 3 more times throughout the story in very relevant places where the narrator attempts of justifying with his own logic why he isn’t mad.
Furthermore, the narrator repeats adverbs when he performs actions related to the murder. “Steadily”, a word he repeats when opening the door, and slowly to describe how he thrusts his head into the door. Most commonly repeated, however, are the words “louder” and
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It starts with the first line of the story, which says, “True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” This, I believe is foreshadowing for all of the story up until the old man’s murder. It is first seen when the narrator says, “You fancy me mad”. This begins to confirm that the narrator might be mad. Then, in the sixth paragraph, the narrator begins to explain how he takes pleasure in hearing the terror the old man feels after hearing the sound of the latch. In paragraph 10 the narrator begins to elaborate about how nervous he is before he decides to kill the old man. The first line of the story describes everything that is going to happen before the murder. It tells the reader what the personality of the narrator is, what he feels, that he is mad and most of all, that he tends to repeat himself. The information provided at the end helps us, the reader, not be confused by what happens later in the story, and have a better understand of it