During the seder, there is a special mitzvah to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. The verse says:
“״וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה’ לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָֽיִם “And tell your sons during this day, because of this ‘ה did to me, when I left Egypt.” (שמות י״ג: ח׳)
There is also a mitzvah to remember the exodus every day and every night. We learn this from דברים ט״ז:ג׳, which says:
“לְמַעַן תִּזְכֹּר אֶת־יוֹם צֵֽאתְךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּֽיךָ” “In order to remember the day you left Egypt all of your life.”
There is the mitzvah that we have to tell the story of leaving Egypt, which we do at the seder, and there is the mitzvah that we are required to remember the exodus every day and every night. The מנחת חינוך asks, what is different about the seder night? Don’t we also have to remember the exodus every night of the year?
Several achronim have offered answers to this question. First the מנחת חינוך answers his own question and says that during all the other nights of the year, there is a mitzvah to remember the exodus for yourself. However, during the seder, there is a separate mitzvah to tell the story to your son. In light of this, the מנחת חינוך contends that if a person is by himself on seder night, then he cannot fulfill the special mitzvah of telling the story of the exodus.
Next, Rav Chaim Brisker gave three different answers. First he says that in order to fulfill the mitzvah of remembering the exodus, you only need to remember it by yourself, but in order to fulfill the mitzvah of telling the story of the exodus — סיפור יציאת מצרים — you need to tell the story to someone else “דרך שאלה ותשובה” “in a way of question and answer,” as the פסוק says: “והיה כי ישאלך בנך.” The son asks: “מה נשתנה…,” and the father answers: “עבדים היינו…”
The second answer Rav Chaim Brisker gives is that in order to fulfill the mitzvah of telling the story of the exodus, you need to “להתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח” – start with the good and end with the bad. However, in order to fulfill the mitzvah of remembering the exodus — זכירת יציאת מצרים — you only need to remember that it happened.
Rav Chaim Brisker’s third answer is that in order to fulfill the mitzvah of telling the story of the exodus, you need to say the reasons for the mitzvot of the seder, as we say in the הגדה:
רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הָיָה אוֹמֵר: כָּל שֶׁלֹּא אָמַר שְׁלשָׁה... דְּבָרִים אֵלּוּ בַּפֶּסַח, לא יָצָא יְדֵי חוֹבָתוֹ, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן: פֶּסַח, מַצָּה, וּמָרוֹר Rabban Gamliel used to say: Anyone who doesn’t say three things on פסח didn’t fulfill their requirement, and these are the three: פסח, מצה, and מרור.
During the rest of the year, you only need to state the outcome of the exodus: that we were taken out of Egypt by ’ה. However, during the seder you need to describe the entire process: We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and ‘ה took us out of Egypt. In addition to telling the story of our salvation, we also need to tell the story of our trouble and hardship.
Furthermore, there is a special mitzvah of telling the story of the exodus through the three mitzvot of the night: פסח, מצה, ומרור. This means that the telling of the story and the mitzvot of the night are intertwined. You need to tell the story of יציאת מצרים, and as part of the story we eat מצה and מרור. | 
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