"The Tell-Tale Heart" starts "in medias res", in the middle of an event. The opening is an in-progress conversation between the narrator and another person who is not identified in any way. It is speculated that the narrator is confessing to a prison warden, judge, newspaper reporter, doctor or psychiatrist. Whoever it is, it sparks the narrator's need to explain himself in great detail. The first word of the story, "True!," is an admission of his guilt.