The story begins with the declaration, “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? . . . Hearken! And observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” Notice how the author made sure to give very little detail on the story’s background, except that the narrator had an obsession with the old man’s deformed eye. (“One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold . . .”) which made it difficult to pin point an exact audience, to whom he could have been talking to, that is until we realize that we don’t know anything about the relationship between the old man and the narrator, although it can be presumed that the younger man is a nephew tasked with caring for his aging uncle, or, possibly, a servant whose mental state has diminished by virtue of his daily exposure to the old man’s eye. Poe chose not to provide those details as he also, doesn’t provide us with who he’s speaking with. But the only thing we receive is how the narrator has continuous references to his mental state (“Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me”). Which is why the audience is led to believe that the reason he is describing is crime in such great detail is because he’s trying to convince his psychiatrist of his
The story begins with the declaration, “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? . . . Hearken! And observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” Notice how the author made sure to give very little detail on the story’s background, except that the narrator had an obsession with the old man’s deformed eye. (“One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold . . .”) which made it difficult to pin point an exact audience, to whom he could have been talking to, that is until we realize that we don’t know anything about the relationship between the old man and the narrator, although it can be presumed that the younger man is a nephew tasked with caring for his aging uncle, or, possibly, a servant whose mental state has diminished by virtue of his daily exposure to the old man’s eye. Poe chose not to provide those details as he also, doesn’t provide us with who he’s speaking with. But the only thing we receive is how the narrator has continuous references to his mental state (“Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me”). Which is why the audience is led to believe that the reason he is describing is crime in such great detail is because he’s trying to convince his psychiatrist of his