ipl-logo

Insanity In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

717 Words3 Pages

What makes anyone mad? “Edgar Allen Poe once said, ‘Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.’” In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Edgar Allen Poe uses a “Southern Gothic” style of writing to publish in 1843. The craft that Poe has put into this story is mot noticeable, in terms of the voice, creating a voice that’s inside of a mind that is diseased. The narrator is destroying his mind by saying he is not mad or instant by planning a murder. Even though individuals can respond differently to signs of insanity, being extremely foolish or mental illness towards the actions without worrying about the consequences. Throughout the story, we clearly believe that the unnamed narrator repeatedly paranoid, insists he is sane, physically and mentally illness, his actions, and motivations. The narrator feels that a disease is making him feel better, but in reality a disease makes us feel worse like cancer. The narrator speaks directly to us, and he states: "True! —nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad” (Poe 884). He points out a direct point and tells the readers upfront in …show more content…

Towards the end of the story, the narrator feels really guilty because of the death of the old man. During his last words after kill the old man, he screamed: "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!” (Poe 888). Now he calls the policemen villains, and that’s pretty ironic, because he’s the villain, right? The policemen have not done anything, but he thinks that they’re making fun of him. So he has this impression, and he always acts on his impressions, and unfortunately they’re wrong. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is not only the heartbeat that alerts the officers, it makes him reveal his crime of murder. As the table has been turn to the readers with the unexpected guilt and the dramatic close of the narrator's

Show More
Related
275 Words | 2 Pages

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).

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

“ The Tell-Tale Heart” Interpretive Essay Is the complex character created by Edgar Allan Poe a calculated killer or a delusional madman. In the short story “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character has a mental condition which causes him to kill a neighbor. He believes that his neighbor has a “vulture eye” which is the reason why he killed him. Night after night, he watches the man and plans how to kill him. Then one night, he puts his plan into action.

Read More
565 Words | 3 Pages

In·sane /inˈsān/ (adjective) in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction; seriously mentally ill. No one ever expects to go insane, no one knows when they are going insane, and in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator doesn’t think he’s insane either. There is a debate on whether or not he is insane, but despite his opinion, and whoever else's, this narrator is insane, and this is proven by his lack of reason and his auditory hallucinations. Imagine killing a loved one because of a simple physical feature.

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done.” (Poe 390). After pulling the heavy bed on top of the old man and killing him, the narrator begins to dismember the old man as if the bed wasn’t enough. “First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.”

Read More
560 Words | 3 Pages

He refers to himself as Death, implying he has all knowledge and power over the old man. The reader becomes filled with dread as the man patiently waits to kill. The imagery portrayed in “The Tell-tale Heart” increases the demented tone that the narrator projects as the main character waits to strangle the old man. Every night, for a week, the murderer would “look in” upon the victim as he slept.

Read More
264 Words | 2 Pages

In the story “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edger Allen Poe when the police first get to the house the Narrator was very calm, but as the night goes on the Narrator gets crazy. First, after the Narrator kills the old man the police come because the neighbor heard a scream. The Narrator invites them in sits down and talks with them at 4:00am. Next, they are sitting in the old mans bedroom talking there is no trace of the man being killed, but later in the morning the Narrator starts acting crazy. He is think that the police know.

Read More
471 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
419 Words | 2 Pages

The narrator attempted to cover his insanity and show that he is sane with the intention to not to get suspected by the old man. The old man with the blue eye is innocent and unconscious of what the narrator is doing. In fact, nothing the narrator tells the readers about the old man fits the common definition of insanity. However, it fits the narrator 's definition perfectly as he claims “Madmen know nothing”(Poe 303). Feeling confident the narrator shows off to the readers about how flawless his plan was, his insanity is

Read More
557 Words | 3 Pages

Insanity is a disease capable of making a person lose control of themselves. On the other hand, sanity is when a person is what others call “normal”. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe the narrator kills a man and he is confessing to the cops about it. He confesses how long the murder took and what he did each night and how he executed the murder. However, the narrator is not guilty because of the reason of insanity.

Read More
928 Words | 4 Pages

To properly determine whether or not the narrator in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” is insane a definition of insanity must be brought to light; possible explanations for his transgression must be examined, and the scope of information that has been provided must be understood for what it is. To understand if someone is insane or not, American society must lay bare a universal definition for insanity. As a whole, society today does not shy away from using words such as insane or crazy. This careless use of words leads to the definitions becoming less clear.

Read More
945 Words | 4 Pages

“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.

Read More
882 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the story, three major details of the narrator’s psyche are confirmed. First, we learned of the narrator’s deceitfulness. Every morning he lies to the old man with the least bit of guilt. The next continues to prove the madness as the narrator feels utter joy from the terror of another. Lastly, the narrator fabricates that the old man is simply not home to assure the officers.

Read More
496 Words | 2 Pages

Ultimately it comes down to this, insane or sane? Insane would be the perfect way of describing a person being mad, killing a man for no reason, and laughing at a horrifying death. After having the narrator showing so many things to prove he is insane rather than sane is pretty clear. The author allows a visual understanding of the narrator in the “Tell Tale Heart” from having many specific details about his point of view.

Read More
780 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
821 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator of “The Tell-tale Heart” is a madman who does not believe he is insane but continues to show otherwise during the telling of how he kills the old man to police officers. After a week of planning the murder, he still did not find satisfactory because he could still hear the beating of the old man’s heart. Also, if one is not a madman then why would one commit such a crime just because of an eye. While the narrator explains the story of how and why he commits murder, one can conclude that some details are unrealistic throughout his story. Which leads him to come off as a psychopath because of the details and the reason behind killing the old man.

Read More

More about Insanity In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

Open Document