Tell tale heart

The irony of the narrator's account in "The Tell-Tale Heart" is that although he proclaims himself to be too calm to be a madman, he is defeated by a noise that may be interpreted as the beating of his own heart. The narrator tells us that the story takes place inside a random old house about which few details are given to the reader. This allows the narrator to concentrate the details of his story on himself and the old man. I suppose an old house might also foreshadow the creaking and "noises" that will come from under the floorboards later.