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How does Poe bring out the psychological disorder in the narrator of the short story the tell tale heart
How does Poe bring out the psychological disorder in the narrator of the short story the tell tale heart
How does Poe bring out the psychological disorder in the narrator of the short story the tell tale heart
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The definition of Legal insanity is that at the time of the crime, the killer couldn’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy, right from wrong, and/or could not control his/her behavior. The killer in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is not legally insane. The killer is not insane because of the killer having controlled behavior when planning the murder, hiding the body because the killer knows what the killer did was wrong, and the killer acted crazy and freaked out around the police after the crime was committed. For instance, a reason the killer is not insane is the killer could control the killer’s behavior.
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).
Your Honor and Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, the defendant in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The tell-Tale Heart” is insane; using the McNaughton rule it will be proven that the Caretaker should be placed in a state hospital for the criminally insane. The McNaughton rule states that one has a mental disorder or disease that compels them to commit the crime, the accused can not resist the urge to commit the crime, and that he or she did not know what he/ she was doing, and the Defendant did not understand that what he/
First-Degree Murder is the most serious crime that can be committed, punishable by the death penalty. Once someone commits this crime, they are forever known as a dangerous and terrible person. The decision to murder someone is usually conscious, but in some occasions the suspect can plead innocent for reasons of temporary insanity. In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, a man decided to murder his neighbor because he was scared of the neighbor’s eye. When the police came to interrogate him, the man heard a heartbeat in his head.
While reading “The Tell-Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allen Poe, I could not help but to notice the mental conflict the narrator portrayed. Through obvious statements from the narrator and my own insinuations, I believe it is safe to conclude that the narrator’s claim to sanity was unreliable and compromised due to his/her mental state. The narrator’s attempt to rationalize his rational behavior in the end caused him to be looked at as a madman, we see this by how “wisely” he executed and handled the old man’s body after killing him, and how his “sharpened senses” as he described early in the poem, ultimately was the reason why he confessed to his crime. The story begins with how the narrator professes, “I loved the old man” and “He never wronged me”, then reveals how he was obsessed with the old man’s eye; “The eye of
However there are several interpretations that connect this phenomenon to the cultural circumstances in which Poe lived. John Cleman argues in his essay “Irresistible Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense” that this notion first appeared in England, due to several trials that ended up declaring the criminal mentally ill, so that the person was able to avoid punishment. At the beginning these people were not distinguished from criminals, but throughout the time, due to several reforms, finally they were placed in asylums, where they got the proper medical treatment. This state of being was claimed not culpable, through the fact that those people did not show the signs of rationality. (Cleman, 625-626) Cleman claims that this affected Poe, especially two cases, where the murderers were acquitted; James Wood, who killed his own daughter and Singleton Mercer, who murdered his sister’s seducer.
To begin with, the theme of insanity is present throughout Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart.” In the beginning of the short story, the narrator begins by saying “True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad” (Poe 440). He began trying to give reasoning for his actions, hinting to readers that he had previously committed a horrific act. The narrator realized he had every reason to care and love the old man for “he never wronged me… never given me an insult” (Poe 440) but instead of feeling compassionate, he had an insane desire to kill the old man. He questioned why he would want to inflict harm onto someone he had no bitterness towards and comes up with an explanation.
While many characters of Edgar Allan Poe are completely reliable, the main character from the first person narrative “The Tell-Tale Heart” is completely insane. He tells the readers that he is not mad because of all the careful planning he did in order to kill an old man with a vulture eye. Based on the evidence presented in the 8th Amendment of the Death Penalty the main character should be sentenced to psychiatric hospital because as stated by the evidence from the text the narrator killed the old man because of non existent “vulture eye”, heard loud heartbeats of the dead man, and he confessed to his crime. To begin, the main character is a delusional madman because he killed a man because of an eye. No sane person would kill anybody because
Was this man a calculated killer, or delusional madman? What should his penalty be for his actions? The story “Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a man with a self-proclaimed “disease”, who decides takes another mans life. The narrator gives the motive for the killing being the eye of the old man killed. The killer for one week, stealthily watching him sleep trying to get a glimpse of the eye.
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.
The Tell-Tale Heart written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843 is about a man who claims he is not insane but only nervous. In turn, he tells a story to defend his sanity, in which he confesses to have killed an old man. He claims that his ambition was neither passion nor greed for money, but actually uneasiness of the old man’s pale blue eyes. He continues to insist that he isn’t mad because of his calm and collected actions. Even though he is a murderer, he claims that his composed actions aren’t ones of a psychopath.
“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 Tell-Tale Heart Argumentative Paragraph In the story, “ The Tell-Tale Heart ,” Poe gives ideas which could prove that the narrator is criminally insane. The narrator could be named mad for some of his many actions and thoughts. The facts supporting this include: the defendant killed the old man over his “evil eye”, he brutally murdered the man and dismembered his body, he has to remind himself that he isn’t mad even though he committed murder, and states that he hears the dead man's heartbeat get louder and louder until he confesses murder. To begin with, the defendant kills the old man he lived with over his “evil” eye. He states that it gets to him, and drives him to eventually, after the 8th night, kill him.
Unsoundness Of Mind.. Insanity is defined in many ways. It’s all up to the person and their point of view. The actual definition of insanity is “a 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. Insanity is distinguished from low intelligence or mental deficiency due to age or injury.” (via http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=979) The narrator from the short story “The Tell Tale Heart” is a lot of things.
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.
