What is the tone of "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

Tone refers to the specific attitude the author took with regard to a character, place or topic. The reader understands the author's intended meaning, feeling and perspective created in the text because of the tone. In Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" the author created a frantic, sinister and nervous tone. This helps the reader understand the main character's state of mind with regard to his own sanity and belief that the heart of the person he killed haunts him with its beating sound.

The pace of the writing with its short, choppy sentences and exclamations adds to the frantic tone of the text. The narrator refers often to the question of his sanity, further adding to the frantic nature of the writing. The frantic tone in the beginning leads way to a sinister tone as the narrator describes the way in which he killed and hid the old man. As the police arrive, the narrator returns to a frantic tone. This time, rather than attempting to convince the reader of his sanity, he is driven to the point of madness by the sound of the dead man's beating heart that he believes he hears.