In "The Tell-Tale Heart," do you believe that the old man really existed? Or was he just a figment of the narrator's imagination?

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," it is possible--and even likely--that the old man never existed at all and that he is a figment of the narrator's imagination.  Looking at the context clues surrounding the old man, none suggest that anyone has ever seen or talked to the old man.  For example, the neighbor who notifies the police says that a "shriek" interrupted the night, but the narrator tells the police that he himself shrieked in a...

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," it is possible--and even likely--that the old man never existed at all and that he is a figment of the narrator's imagination.  Looking at the context clues surrounding the old man, none suggest that anyone has ever seen or talked to the old man.  For example, the neighbor who notifies the police says that a "shriek" interrupted the night, but the narrator tells the police that he himself shrieked in a dream.  This is possible.  Further, when the narrator tears up the floorboards to expose the old man's body, none of the police exclaim with horror or fright.  The story ends with the exclamations of the narrator.  Even during the plotting of the murder, the old man never left his room, and no one came into the house, so from the reader's perspective, no one has had any contact with the old man.  So it is possible that no one else is there and that the narrator is simply tormented by his own mind.