How Is The Tell Tale Heart Reality Or Insanity

Uncontrollable, mad. Fantasy or reality? Which is which? What is right, what is wrong…No sane would kill one for a triviality. Sane would be able to distinguish fantasy from reality. They would have controlled behaviors and have cautious actions. Sane is not the author…Insane he is. He shows the characteristics of an insane. The narrator has uncontrollable and impulsive behaviors. He also cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. In this short narrative, written by Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator is insane because he cannot divide fantasy from reality, nor does he have controlled and cautious behaviors.

To start with, the narrator illustrates insanity because he has uncontrollable and impulsive behaviors. In the short story,

In the beginning of the short narrative, he describes the old man’s eye as a vulture eye. He states, “I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye.” (104). In this quote, the narrator is explaining how he had gone into the old man’s chamber and undid the lantern and a bit of light had gone over his “vulture eye”. This provides proof that he cannot distinguish fantasy from reality because the old man’s eye is not an actual vulture’s eye. It is not possible for a human’s eye to be of a vulture. Near the middle of the short narrative, when the old man had woken to see the narrator, he began to feel nervous. The narrator felt a nervous and anxiety-like feeling considering that old man’s heartbeat was starting to be louder and louder. The narrator’s anxiety had grown more, causing him to be more worried about the neighbors hearing the heartbeat. Then, then narrator decides to kill the old man. He claims “Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me --the sound would be heard by a neighbor!” (107). Later, near the end of the story, the narrator is still bothered by the sound. He claims “Yet the sound increased --and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound.” (108). This provides evidence of him not being able to tell apart fantasy from reality. If he had killed