Insanity In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

“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. The narrator gives no other evidence of wanting to kill the man. He says, “I think it was his eye! yes, it was a snare! He had the eye of a vulture.I made up my mind to take the

He says, “There was nothing to wash out—no stain of any kind—no blood-spot whatever. I was too wary of that. A tub had caught all --ha! Ha!” (5). I am a sham. His laughter proves that the narrator feels no regret in what he has done. Further evidence that the narrator is not sane is when he says he can hear things. He says, “Above all was the sense of acute hearing. I heard all things in the heavens and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.” (1). Saying this shows that he is not mentally stable, and hearing things that most people don’t. Even more evidence is the narrator hearing a heartbeat. He hears this thumping sound thinking it’s the old man’s heartbeat, but it’s his heartbeat. He describes it, as “...a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I know that sounds good, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart.” This further proves that the narrator is mentally ill, he thinks that he can hear the old man's heartbeat. He heard it once again after he had dismembered the man and put him under the floorboards, he says, “It was a low, dull, quick sound – much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in