Does it seem like the narrator is speaking to someone?

It is possible that Poe intended to create the impression
that the narrator was speaking aloud to a confessor, but it seems more likely that he
wanted to create the illusion that his story was a translation of a personal letter that
had somehow come into his possession. Otherwise, we would have to imagine that the
narrator was speaking in either Italian or French and that somehow we were able to
understand the words as if we could hear them in English. This would detract from the
perfection of Poe's story. It would be a further stretch to assume that the narrator
also happened to know English and for some strange reason chose to make his confession
in that language. Furthermore, if the narrator were speaking aloud, perhaps on his death
bed, he would be unlikely to remember all the fine details he includes in his account of
an incident that occurred fifty years before. More likely, he was writing a confidential
letter and took plenty of time to remember the events he was describing. He never uses
phrases such as, "I seem to recall," "If I remember correctly," "He said something like
. . ."--Poe might have used such phrases if he wanted to create the illusion that the
narrator was speaking aloud to a second party. The best explanation of the fictional
format is that Poe found an old letter written in Italian or French and translated it
into English for publication in an American magazine. It is possible that the letter was
never even mailed but was found among the narrator's papers after his death. Many
confidential letters are written, often while the writer is intoxicated,  and never
mailed.