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).
The narrator
“The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story written in 1843. The story is told in the first person by a narrator who wants to kill an old man because he doesn’t like the look of his eyes. He makes a careful plan to kill him, thinking that this plan proves his sanity while the details of the plan prove that he is insane. Throughout the story, there is evidence to prove that the narrator is mentally ill. Perhaps the most convincing evidence to prove the narrator is insane is that his motive for murder is simply not liking the looks of the old man's eye.
Of the whole population, only 1% will develop the disease Schizophrenia. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Tell-Tale Heart”, the main character has a mental illness that causes him to murder a old man. The old man’s eye distressed the character so, as a solution, he decided to rid the eye from his sight forever. Evidence suggests that the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” suffers from Schizophrenia, even though some readers conclude that he has Bipolar disorder.
The narrator shows signs of insanity in his actions, behaviour, drive, and actions. In the short story by, Edgar Allan Poe, it is evident that the natator is insane because of his delusions and impulsive behaviour. To begin with, the narrator shows clear signs of
The Style of Poe Analysis In “The Tell-tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, the demented, arrogant and dark tones reflect the man’s guilt and insanity that eventually leds him to admit to the crime he committed. Poe’s diction heightens the arrogant tones which is seen as the man plans the murder and carries it out in a careful, organized way. He goes “boldly” into the chamber, “cunningly” sticks his head in the doorway and feels “the extent of his own power”. Poe’s use of diction shows how cocky the man actually is.
Mental illnesses can take over a person’s brain; leading them to do bad things. In the short story, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, a man killed his boss because of his appearance. An older gentleman had a cataract over his right eye. His worker that stayed in the house with him was believed to have had a mental issue, because the eye would bother him. Many people believe that this particular short story is not appropriate for the middle school age group.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I will be defending that the accused individual is legally insane, and that because of this, he wasn’t fully aware of his actions and therefore can’t be held accountable for his activities during the time of the murder. He is guilty of murdering an old man, the murder was caused by his insanity and because of this I will be extricating the narrator from this situation. The anonymous narrator is legally insane because he couldn’t distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality. He was subject to uncontrollable, impulsive behavior, and was unable to tell right from wrong during the murder. The first, and perhaps most obvious, symptom of mental illness exhibited by the narrator is nervousness.
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects they way a person acts, think, and sees the world. The narrator from “The Tell-Tale Heart” acted very weirdly and had thoughts that no ordinary person would think. If a person has this disorder they usually act out in violence and have hallucinations. The narrator would believe things that were not there and he had evil thoughts of doing the unexpected. The narrator from “The Tell-Tale Heart” is schizophrenic because he acts out in violence and has hallucinations of things that didn’t even exist.
According to medical professionals Schizophrenia a mental disease cause people to lose touch with reality, often in the form of hallucinations , delusions and extremely disordered thinking and or behavior. Which is like the killer in “The Tell-Tale Heart” he is delusional and has extremely disordered thinking and behavior. In the story he watches the man for his eye. then when he does see the eye he kills him and and without thinking he dismembers the body and lies to the cops only to confess when he believes to hear the heart the dead victim's heart.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist insists that he is not mad. But in the end, the reader can infer that the protagonist is mad. Obviously, Poe implies the protagonist’s insanity along the story. What technique does Poe use to convince the reader? How would the reader know the protagonist’s instability?
Edgar Allan Poe 's The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart are very similar in the way that they portray insanity. In The Black Cat the narrator was an introvert that becomes an alcoholic and becomes “insane” when he starts to not feel any emotions when he does anything, cruel or not. In The Black Cat the narrator did things that many would consider insane, such as taking a cats’ eye out or hanging the cat because you love it. The narrator, despite being an alcoholic, did things that even if you were intoxicated would make you insane to be ok with. The narrator, in a drunken stupor, took the black cats’ eye out, then afterwards, after feeling some remorse at least, decided to hang the cat because he loved it.
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.
“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.
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.
