The Narrator Is Legally Insane Analysis

The defense’s argument that the narrator is legally insane is flawed; it disregards the evidence and facts that prove that the narrator is not insane by legal definition. First of all, the narrator knew what he did was wrong. In his confession, the narrator states that, “You should have seen how careful I was to put the body where no one could find it. First I cut off the head, then the arms and the legs. I was careful not to let a single drop of blood fall on the floor. I pulled up three of the boards that formed the floor, and put the pieces of the body there. Then I put the boards down again, carefully, so carefully that no human eye could see that they had been moved” (66). Why would the narrator hide the body of the old man so

In his confession, the narrator explains that, “Every night about twelve o’clock I slowly opened his door. And when the door was opened wide enough I put my hand in, and then my head. In my hand I held a light covered with a cloth so that no light showed. And I stood there quietly. Then, carefully, I lifted the cloth, just a little, so that a single, thin, small light fell across that eye. For seven nights I did this, seven long nights, every night at midnight. Always the eye was closed, so it was impossible for me to do the work. For it was not the old man I felt I had to kill; it was the eye, his Evil Eye” (65). The motive for killing the old man may be questionable, but the fact that the narrator refrained from killing the old man in his sleep during those seven nights shows how capable he was at controlling his behavior. The narrator could have easily killed the old man during those seven nights because he was sleeping. However, he didn’t do this. Instead, the narrator didn’t try to kill the old man because one of the old man’s eye, which was the narrator’s motive for killing the old man, wasn’t open. The narrator knew his motive for killing the old man, so he didn’t try to prematurely kill the old man. He waited until the old man opened the eye that he despised, which happened on the eighth night that he sneaked into the old man’s room. The narrator would have tried to kill the old man on the first night that he sneaked into the old man’s room, if he didn’t have control over his behavior. The narrator’s self-control proves that he actually has control over his