Traumatic Stress Disorders In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

After reading the story “Tell-Tale Heart”, one might believe the narrator is crazy. In this story the narrator kills the old man because of an eye he doesn’t like. The narrator expresses sleeping problems, angry outburst, and feeling tense. This all seems like the narrator might have some disease; however, these signs show he might be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The narrator expresses sleeping problems throughout the story. The narrator watches the old man sleep for eight days straight. For seven days he just watches carefully. “And this I did for seven long nights-every night just at midnight-but I found the eye always closed…” (Poe 388). For seven days he doesn’t make a sound; however, on the eighth day he made a noise.

In the story the narrator never hurts or messes with the old man until he sees the eye open. “I was never kinder to the old man then during the whole week before I killed him.” (Poe 388). The narrator became very angry when he sees the eye open and immediately jumps on the bed. “In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done.” (Poe 390). After pulling the heavy bed on top of the old man and killing him, the narrator begins to dismember the old man as if the bed wasn’t enough. “First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.” (Poe

At the end of the story the narrator thinks he committed the prefect crime. Right when he finishes the job he gets a knock on the door. He finds the police wanting to look around the house because of a call they got from a neighbor. “A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused, information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises.” (Poe 390). He had nothing to fear since he left no ties to the crime that had been committed. Then he starts to feel as if the police are on to him because he claims he hears the old man’s heart beat. “I swung up the chair upon which I had been siting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased.” (Poe 391). He then committed to the crime and showed the police the body of the old man. “…I admit the deed-tear up the planks! - here, here! -it is the beating of his hideous heart!” (Poe 391). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can be caused by many things. Some people are believed to get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to life experiences. For example, lots of soldiers that come back for their deployment will get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the action that was placed in front to them. Another example are raped victims due to the physical trauma they experienced. Some critics like to believe the narrator in the story Tell-Tale Heart was a raped by