Structure

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Beginning

The story begins in medias res, or in the middle of events. The first question “True – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (p. 154, ll. 1-2) represents a narrative hook, meant to draw the reader’s attention. Therefore, the exposition presents the narrator directly addressing the reader. The narrator argues that he is nervous but not mad and that his sense of hearing is more acute than normal. This statement foreshadows the mental instability of the narrator and the beating sound he hears before and after murdering the old man. 

Through a backstory, the narrator confesses that he does not know when he began harbouring the intent to kill the old man and that there is no other reason behind his action except his fixation wi…