Edgar Allan Poe remains a popular writer today because he crafted horror stories that operate on us from the inside out. In others words, he created dramatic stories that begin in the mind and work on us psychologically. With Poe, we often find characters that are unstable or completely mad and this aspect is one tool that he utilizes to create fear and terror. One short story that demonstrates this powerful psychological impact is "The Tell-tale Heart." Poe takes us on a journey filled with fear and terror that takes place in the mind of the narrator. Poe also employs another component to create this psychological thriller, which is the narrator's madness. The element of madness becomes a central part of the story because it is up to us to discern whether or not the narrator is indeed mad. The story builds into a crescendo of terror and madness with the old man's beating heart and the narrator's bizarre behavior. The narrator fails to consider the law of unintended consequences and thus does not count on the sound of beating heart and his own guilt, which drive him over the edge of sanity. With "The Tell-tale Heart," Poe illustrates how our worst fears often exist within the boundaries our own minds, thus demonstrating how a psychological thriller operates. .

             To create the perfect backdrop for this psychological drama, Poe places us in the mind of the narrator, a man that is convinced he is sane and tries to convince of that fact as well. He remains convinced that he is sane because what he is experiencing has "sharpened my senses--not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute" (Poe 189). It is also interesting that he refers to his experience as a disease. Here we see that Poe is using the narrator's interior dialogue a powerful tool to give us a glimpse into his mind. It is also worth noting how his character develops as the story unfolds.