Insane In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe

471 Words2 Pages

If someone killed another person, then chopped them up, and then proceeded to stuff them under the floorboards, would you say they were insane? Most Likely. Well, to be actually considered insane is something more specific than you think. A summarized definition of it is when a person commits a crime, they didn't completely understand what they were doing due to a mental disease or defect, therefore they cannot be proven guilty. With that newfound information, you might now believe that the person that killed them isn't insane. However, what if I told you that the person that committed the crime clearly said that they had a mental illness? If you are now thinking that they are insane, you are correct. For that exact reason stated, that is why the Narrator is …show more content…

Like one piece of evidence, the Narrator states that he has a mental disorder. I know this because according to the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe the Narrator states “Very dreadfully nervous I have been and am; but why would you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not dulled.” If you are to focus on this one part of the quote “The disease had sharpened my senses, not dulled.” You would clearly read that he has a disease, but he then talks about how it affects his senses. Senses are things like sound, touch, and sight. All of this is controlled by your brain, your brain is the thing that receives these signals that your senses send out. With this new information, we can come to the conclusion that he has a mental illness, which alone is enough already to tell a judge that he is insane. However to add to that though another part of the quote states “Very dreadfully nervous I had been and am;” This shows that the Narrator has been feeling very nervous, anxious for some time. And if it is that “dreadful” as the Narrator says it is. It would make his disease much more severe. The Narrator in the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is