Why? Why?

In the last activity we looked at just the word “mad”. Now let’s look at the rest of the second clause.

True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?

Notice that the second clause is a question, not a statement. He could have said “…but I am not mad!”, like we wrote in previous pages, instead of asking “…why will you say that I am mad?”

Why did Poe write this as a question? What is the effect?

The question does a few things:

It shows that the narrator is talking to someone else— which makes us wonder who? And why?
It suggests that the person who the narrator is addressing said they think the narrator is mad.
The fact that the narrator is asking this question makes them seem kind of defensive, which adds to that overall sense of crazy intensity.

Let’s rewrite our simplified version of the snippet with questions instead of statements at the end.

Nervous — very, very, dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will you say that I am mad?

Sad — so, so, deeply sad I had been and am, but what makes you think that I am suicidal?

Angry — very, very, violently angry I had been and am, but why would you tell anyone I am murderous?

Write your own variation.

Write another one.

The opening of The Tell-Tale Heart