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).
We hear about unbelievable murders in the news quite frequently. Some of them are mentally insane and get let off because, “It’s not their fault.” Or, “They were born like that”. The narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart was insane before he murdered the old man. But was he responsible for his actions?
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.
Do you want your children to not be afraid of that creepy guy with the red van that has free candy spray painted on it. If you do want them to have the common sense that lets them know to fear let them read tell tale heart. Tell tale heart is a story of a crazy man who thinks himself sane. 8th grader should be able to read this novel because if you hear something break in your house you think of scary things so you call 911. If you have not seen scary stories then you will lack the knowledge of horrible outcomes and think it was something harmless as so dumb people in movies often do.
While what he did was horrible and insane-like, the narrator did this process very sanely and put lots of thought into it. No absolute insane person would spend days and days watching someone sleep, or acting perfectly normal around victim just so they could tike their kill perfectly, even though watching someone sleep is an insane trait. He was very cautious in this, “But you should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work!” and proved to be quite patient, “It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed.’’ So he couldn’t have been totally insane, right?
Edgar Allan Poe once noted about insanity, “I do not suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.” Many of Poe’s readers may agree with his words because he includes many moments of insanity in his stories. Likewise, as Poe suffered from a great deal of tragedy during his lifetime such as the deaths of four family members, the reader may believe that his life was not the simplest and most pleasant. Although Poe’s short stories and poems seem quixotic, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “Annabel Lee,” and “The Conqueror Worm” illustrate a direct reflection of how these events affected him in his lifetime.
"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity" "There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of a Hell." -Edgar Allan Poe A man whose life is still veiled in mystery even 150 years after his death, Edgar Allan Poe, the father of horror and gothic writing, is a man that truly understands the meaning of tragedy and madness. Poe lived a life of continuous misfortunes, and in his writings he expresses a darker view on humanity, one example would be in his short story "The Tell-Tale Heart", a story about a man that desperately tries to convince the reader that he is a sane man, despite the egregious story he proceeds to tell; he goes on by walking you through the time he killed an old, innocent man.
Edgar Allan Poe’s frightening gothic style poetry and short novels about fear, love, death and horror are prominent to Gothic Literature and explore madness through a nerve-recking angle. The incredible, malformed author, poet, editor and novelist is recognized for his famous classical pieces such as “The Raven”, “Berenice” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, pieces of work that mystically yet magnificently awakens readers with a gloomy spirit. Awakening the subject of madness through written work was viewed as insane during Poe’s times. Yet Poe published some of the worlds most magnificently frightening pieces of literature throughout history. In the following essay I will examine and cautiously analyze
In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, the main character recalls an event in which he did strange, utterly deplorable things, yet still maintains through the entire retelling that he’s perfectly sane. Although he protested to the idea, after analyzing his account of the events, it is clear that this man is not mentally sound. The young man in The Tell-Tale Heart murders a kind old man he lives with.
Modern artists today generally use images of physical and mental illness in literature. In The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, both short stories show the usage of illness, madness, and fear. The narrators in both stories try to convince the readers that the characters are physically and mentally ill. Edgar Allen Poe creates these vivid characters which successfully assist the building of plot and ideas. Poe demonstrates how a person’s inner turmoil and terror can lead to insanity through illustrative language.
“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.
“I've heard many things in the heaven and in the earth. I've heard many things in hell”(Poe). In the story The tell tale heart, a man ends up killing his old man over his “Vulture eye”. He loved the old man. But his “evil eye” vexed him and he decided to take his life.
Rationale: For this task, I created a diary because I think that this style of writing would be an extremely effective way to show another major character’s emotions and ideas, as it can be written from a first person perspective, giving a huge amount of insight. I based my task on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, titled “The Tell-Tale Heart.” I chose this piece as it gives the opportunity to be very creative in my writing, but also introduces various constraints, such as writing in a similar style to Poe, and trying to avoid any plot holes. This task specifically relates to part 4 of the language and literature course, being; literature, as the stimulus text is a piece of literature, as is my piece of writing.
Edgar Allan Poe often demonstrates madness in his short stories. Many times it comes from the first-person narrator. While the narrators are similar in the fact that they are both insane, they also have a lot of differences in the way that they are insane. A great way to compare the way the insanity differs in the narrators, is to compare two of Poe’s stories. Stories such as “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” do a good job showing the similarities and differences between the insanity in both of the stories, as well as the insanity in other short stories of Edgar Allan Poe’s.
Edgar Allan Poe was a genius before his time, and his riveting works are immortalized in the hearts and minds of his readers. For hundred of years, adults and children alike have been intrigued by Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. Many of Poe’s works differ from one another especially, “William Wilson” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Although it may seem like there are more similarities between the two works, their differences are much more significant. “William Wilson” and “The Tell-Tale Heart s”’most of the tremendous differences are found within characters, conflicts, and themes.
