How does Edger Allan Poe Use Language to Create a Sense of Drama Intention in the Opening of "The Tell-Tale Heart?"

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How does Edger Allan Poe Use Language to Create a Sense of Drama Intention in the Opening of "The Tell-Tale Heart?"

"The Tell Tail Heart," by Edger Allan Poe, is a novel in which tension and expectation play essential roles to the reader's experience. The audience, generally well educated widely read adults, would appreciate this novel as a recollection of a clearly insane man. In order to "tell you the whole story"' Poe has written somewhat of an early psychological thriller, creating a mental portrait of a mad protagonist, who details the killing of an old man, and later hears his victims 'relentless heartbeat.' The opening sets up a contrast of sanity versus insanity, creating a psychological chaos that enraptures the reader. Drama intention is portrayed through a variety of ways, all working cohesively with one another to create an over all sense of embossed insanity and powerful emotion.

The way in which the opening is written gives the reader an immediate clue to the mental state of the protagonist. The very first line; "True! - nervous - very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" uses all