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Tell tale heart insanity edgar allan poe conclusion paragraph
Allen poe tell tale heart sane or insane
Allen poe tell tale heart sane or insane
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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).
Insanity Your Honor and Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury the caretaker in Edgar Allan Poe’s”The Tell-Tale Heart” is Insane; using the McNaughton rule proves that he should be placed in a state hospital for the criminally insane, He did not know what he was doing, He did not know that what he was doing was wrong. The caretaker is insane because the sounds he hears that causes him to go insane.
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator's obsession with the old man's eye serves as a symbol for the narrator's guilt and insanity. The eye, with its pale blue color and film over it, represents the narrator's conscience, which haunts and torments them. The narrator's fixation on the eye is a clear indication of their mental instability. They describe the eye as "evil" and "vulture-like," indicating that it has taken on a monstrous quality in their mind.
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.
The hallucinations of the narrator weren’t even possible to happen. “While hallucinations can involve any of five senses, auditory hallucinations (e.g. hearing voices or some other sound) are most common in schizophrenia. This statement declares that in their mind they hear sounds in their head that make them believe that it is real even if there is no possible way it can (Schizophrenia 2). “ It was a low, dull quick sound-- much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton….It is the beating of his hideous heart!”.
After completing the reading of, “The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe”, I have come to the conclusion that the narrator is suffering from psychotic episodes. The narrator starts off immediately advising us that “the disease had sharpened his senses” (Poe 41). This immediately makes me believe that there is some type of mental illness that the narrator is dealing with such as schizophrenia and delusional disorders. We see how the narrator starts to question and find logic in the reasoning for being angry. At the same time the narrator shows us that they are extremely nervous but cannot seem to find the words for reasoning of why they are feeling this way.
Edgar Allan Poe, a man who has changed literature through his numerous pieces of writing, such as The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Fall of the House of Usher. In Edgar Allan Poe’s famous work, The Raven, the main character is confronted with a raven. The character speaks to the raven, thinking it couldn’t respond, but the raven did respond, but only speaking one word, “Nevermore” (Poe 331). In some cases of mental illnesses, one can experience hallucinations, hearing voices, paranoia, and even persecutory delusion. Is it possible that the Raven could have symbolized something other than a bird.
““There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness.” (Jamison). With the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, most of his characters are very expressive of how they perceive themselves. Many of these characters see themselves as perfectly normal or sane. This can be seen by the characters justifying their actions or automatically mentioning how they are not mad.
Gothic Literature as a genre is not particularly new, for it has been around since the mid-1700s and continues to make its mark on present day media. Gothic Literature compose of several topics, such as but not limited to mental illness, gothic elements, arabesque storytelling, and narration/point of view. Several short stories and novels include these topics and themes, but most fail to be quintessential representatives of this genre. Only a few authors throughout modern history manage to become key representatives of this genre. One of the greatest examples of this feat of genre representation is the late Edgar Allan Poe.
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 is the state of being seriously ill;madness. ”(The Urban Dictionary) In fact, Edgar Allan Poe states this in “The Tell Tale Heart” Edgar suggests this when he writes “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees-very gradually-I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever(Poe pg.203).” There is no doubt the narrator of this story is insane. In fact, he expresses his insanity while believing he is sane.
There are many mental illnesses that would lead to insane behaviors ranging from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder to Schizophrenia. While it is difficult for the average person diagnose mental disorders from such a short story, the narrator likely has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The care he takes in every aspect of his nightly stalking show the telltale characteristic of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: “And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it- oh so gently!”
While Edgar Allan Poe as the narrator of the The Tell-Tale Heart has the reader believe that he was indeed sane, his thoughts and actions throughout the story would prove otherwise. As the short story unfolds, we see the narrator as a man divided between his love for the old man and his obsession with the old man’s eye. The eye repeatedly becomes the narrator’s pretext for his actions, and while his delusional state caused him much aggravation, he also revealed signs of a conscience. In the first paragraph of the short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe establishes an important tone that carries throughout his whole story, which is ironic.
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.
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.
