In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Edgar Allan Poe chooses to have the murderer himself relate the story to the reader. It begins after he has confessed, and he is more interested in convincing the reader of his sanity than in receiving forgiveness for his crime. Poe has the murderer tell the story and refer directly to the reader to give the tale a sense of immediacy and help capture the attention and imagination of the reader. Using the murderer as the narrator also helps show his descent into madness in a way that would be impossible from an outside perspective.
The narrator says, "Listen! Listen, and I will tell you how it happened. You will see, you will hear how healthy my mind is." In doing so, the narrator directly engages the reader and brings them into the story. The reader isn't just reading the tale—they're being directly addressed by a murderer who is cataloging both his crimes and his journey into insanity. It makes for a more tense, interesting tale. It also establishes the narrator's intent; he wants to convince the reader that he's sane.
The narrator attempts to convince the reader—the witness to his story—that he isn't crazy. He wants the reader to understand that the sound really was there, even if no one else heard it. He makes his appeal, saying "Have I not told you that my hearing had become unusually strong?" Again, the reader is directly addressed in such a way as to draw them deeper into the story. The reader becomes an element of the story rather than a mere observer.
As the narrator becomes more insane, he addresses the reader again, saying, "So I am mad, you say? You should have seen how careful I was to put the body where no one could find it." The reader takes on the position of both witness to the narrator's actions and the hearer of his confessions. The narrator is so desperate to convince the reader that he is sane that he seems unable to recognize the severity of his crimes. His attempt to convince you of his sanity is that he dismembered and hid the body of his victim.
By using a narrator that directly addresses the reader, Poe makes a reader into a character in the story. He gives a reader a larger stake in the outcome simply because the reader is the one to whom the narrator is confessing. The reader has his perspective grounded in reality and is the witness to the narrator's insanity. The narrator seems to focus only on the phantom heartbeat as the source of his insanity, even though his reasons for killing the old man are just as crazy as (if not more insane than) believing he hears the beating heart of his victim.
Having the narrator tell the story also removes any doubt about his motivations and actions. The narrator knows he committed murder, and he truly believes he could still hear the heart beating. If the story was told from an outside perspective, the reader might have to question whether or not the criminal believed his own words—or if he was using his insanity as a way to lessen the punishment for the murder he committed. But hearing the words directly from the narrator and witnessing his belief in the continued beating of his victim's heart helps mitigate any doubt the reader might have.
"The Tell-Tale Heart" grips the imagination because the narrator is attempting to justify the horrendous. Poe makes sure the story is quick and focused on the actions of the narrator, the aftermath, and the result. That helps keep it tense and scary. Cutting away from the immediate action may have made it less interesting. Instead, the tense, terse prose keeps the reader glued to the page. The juxtaposition between the sanity of a normal reader and the insanity of the narrator also makes the story gripping. Even while the reader is hoping the innocent old man might live, it's clear that he won't. Later, when the narrator confesses his crimes, the story is satisfying because he isn't able to get away without the authorities knowing what he's done.
As the analysis of "The Tell-Tale Heart" explains, Poe believed "the short story was the ideal medium for conveying artistic insight because the reader was likely to give it his or her concentrated attention for the brief time it took to read it." He thought that the writer needed to draw the reader into the story right away. By having the narrator directly address the reader, Poe achieves this in his story.
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