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Examples Of Insanity In The Tell Tale Heart

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Many people often forewarn us to stay away from insane or mentally unstable people because their unpredictable actions might cause us harm but this isn 't necessarily true. People who are in their full senses and are mentally stable to make wise decisions, often do things that even insane people would never imagine of doing. In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, it is clearly demonstrated how the protagonist in the story executed a well-planned murder in a perfectly stable mental state. In fact, he planned it out a week before and for that whole week, he observed the old man every night while he was asleep. Not only that, he also very cautiously and spotlessly murdered and hid his dead body leaving behind no trace of his crime. Moreover, he clearly remembered how and when he did the murder. Needless to say, he was obviously not insane and should lawfully be punished and face the full consequences.

The narrator planned out a very calculated and inhumane murder and was sure to leave behind absolutely no evidence which is impracticable for a mentally ill person to do. He planned everything out and went to the old man 's room, put in a dark lantern, eyeballed the old man “this [he] did for seven long nights—every night just at …show more content…

In summary, all of this evidence and proofs strongly suggest that the narrator of the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is fully guilty of his murder and should immediately be sent to jail or worse if possible. He viciously killed the old man even though the old man never insulted or wronged him but just because he found his eyes evil, he decided to take his life forever. He was not insane but he was definitely crazy and cold-hearted to be so cruel to someone who caused no harm to him and in fact, was considerate of him. There is no way he is insane as he proved to have no qualities of an insane person so there should be no reason for him not to be held completely accountable for his crime or not fully face the

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In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator should not be guilty by reason of insanity. “Insanity Defense” states that a man is innocent by means of insanity if he has committed the crime because he is “unable to control his impulses” as a result of mental disease (“Insanity Defense” 1). Similarly, the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” viewed the old man’s “pale blue eye, with a film over it” with hatred (Poe 1). When the old man’s eye looked upon the narrator, he would uncontrollably increase in fury and anger. This led the narrator to “[make] up [his] mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid [him]self of the eye forever” (Poe 1).

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First-Degree Murder is the most serious crime that can be committed, punishable by the death penalty. Once someone commits this crime, they are forever known as a dangerous and terrible person. The decision to murder someone is usually conscious, but in some occasions the suspect can plead innocent for reasons of temporary insanity. In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, a man decided to murder his neighbor because he was scared of the neighbor’s eye. When the police came to interrogate him, the man heard a heartbeat in his head.

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While what he did was horrible and insane-like, the narrator did this process very sanely and put lots of thought into it. No absolute insane person would spend days and days watching someone sleep, or acting perfectly normal around victim just so they could tike their kill perfectly, even though watching someone sleep is an insane trait. He was very cautious in this, “But you should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work!” and proved to be quite patient, “It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed.’’ So he couldn’t have been totally insane, right?

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A sick thought can devour the mind and body like a silent fever and just when you realize you have it will be too late. Edgar Allan Poe has written many great pieces of literature in his life time. There is one text that stroke a cord with me, because of the way Poe illustrates the narrator’s madness. In his story Tell-tale Heart, the narrator kills an old man because of his eye. The narrator is mentally ill because he was able to tell the story so calmly, he only killed the old man to get rid of his eye, also he stalked the old man till he felt like the right time to kill him.

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The Tell-Tale Heart was told in the first person point of view. The narrator (also the main character) was paranoid and admitting he is nervous yet still sane creating a sad and sinister, slightly intense mood for the reader. This foreshadows that the narrator must have done something deviant and that others attribute him to have gotten insane. The narrator then tells the whole story to justify his sanity. The different conflicts in the story can already be determined—both internal and external: firstly, that the protagonist’s own conscience is haunting him (man vs. self); secondly, that the protagonist needs to prove his sanity (man vs. society); and that the protagonist wants to get rid of the eye of the old man (man vs. eye).

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The story “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey is seen through the perspective of a schizophrenic patient in a mental hospital pretending to be deaf, dumb, and mute. Because of his clear mental illness, it is difficult to tell in the story what is true and what is just in his mind. Throughout the story, the intentions of the patients and staff are questioned by whether they are acting morally. The issues brought to light by the story are using cruel and unusual punishments on mentally ill patients, fighting authority, and putting a human out of his or her misery by killing them, and if these actions are morally correct.

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But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife … I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan” (Poe). This is very similar in presentation to how The Tale-Tale Heart presents it, not that big of a deal that you did the act. The narrator kills his wife without a second thought because he wanted to kill the cat, but what I take from it is that he does not care about his wife enough that killing her does not mean anything to him, and that is insanity. In The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator does a very similar thing to what happens in The Black Cat, kills someone with no feelings of remorse for a very arbitrary reason.

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One sign of the narrator being insane is that he has impulsive behavior. For example, the narrator says, “First of all, I dismembered the corpse, I cut off the head, and the arms, and the legs, or … works as well” (12). This means that he cut off the body without thinking about it beforehand. Furthermore, the narrator also says that he did not just leave the body there, but hid it too. All of this matters because it was a very sudden action

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The Tell-Tale Heart written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843 is about a man who claims he is not insane but only nervous. In turn, he tells a story to defend his sanity, in which he confesses to have killed an old man. He claims that his ambition was neither passion nor greed for money, but actually uneasiness of the old man’s pale blue eyes. He continues to insist that he isn’t mad because of his calm and collected actions. Even though he is a murderer, he claims that his composed actions aren’t ones of a psychopath.

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“Insanity: n. mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior” (Hill). This definition describes the narrator, a sweet yet deadly man, of “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe seamlessly. (Appositive) A few prominent characteristics demonstrate the narrator’s insanity, and those include his motives, his actions, and his thoughts.

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In The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe the narrator is guilty of murder because the narrator thinks the old man could never suspect that his caregiver would ever try to kill him, he claims he can recite the story calmly and healthily as he remembers every detail unlike an insane person , and he admits to killing the old man so he is aware he has committed murder. It is important to realize that the narrator is too presumptuous because the old man would never think his caregiver would try to kill him when he expresses this statement “So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that at every night, Just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.’’ ( Poe 7).

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Insane or Sane? The terrifying story, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe is down right bizarre. I believe the narrator is definitely a little strange whether you may disagree or not. Edgar Allen Poe had a very interesting way of applying the narrator to act like he is not crazy, but at the same time basically baby feeding the readers that he really is crazy. There are several ways the narrator himself is actually proving he is insane.

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Firstly, he killed the old man because of his eye. Additionally , he claimed that he kept hearing the heartbeat when the old man was dead. In closing, he had no control over himself. The difference between a sane person and an insane person is how they think and act. The narrator is obviously insane since he acted easy and normal in situations that are expected to be handled differently, like the time the policemen came to question him about the noises coming out of the house.

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Obsession, internal conflict, and underlying guilt are all aspects of being human but when it’s associated with paranoia and insanity it may be just the recipe for the perfect crime as perceived by Edger Allan Poe in “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe uses this as one of his shortest stories to discuss and provide an insight into the mind of the mentally ill, paranoia and the stages of mental detrition. The story 's action is depicted through the eyes of the unnamed delusional narrator. The other main character in the story is an old man whom the narrator apparently works for and resides in his house. The story opens off with the narrator trying to assure his sanity then proceeding to tell the tale of his crime, this shows a man deranged and hunted with a guilty conscience of his murderous act.

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