Edgar Allan Poe creates an atmosphere of fear and dread in “The Tell-Tale Heart” through the narrator and the insanity that is portrayed. The narrator displays a kind of manner that helps bring the fear out of the story. The narrator is always trying to prove to the reader that he is not a mad man as shown when he stalks the old man for days and then something happens: “For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down” (Poe 304). He wanted to dig deep in the old man’s fear and the reason he did all of this for eight nights was to get rid of that evil eye. He tries to convince the reader of how meticulously he cleans the dismembered body and how clever he was in completing this task: “If still you think