Insanity In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe

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Do you know what it really means to be insane? In the short story The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe it truly captures one mans crazy obsession. Once the man comes to terms with his infatuation with an elderly man's eye. The obsession is followed by insane behavior committed by the narrator. This preposterous behavior eventually leads into a ruthless cold-blooded murder. The reason why I think that the narrator (main character) is insane is because he puts a lot of time and energy into the concept of killing him, his reason for killing the old man is because of his eye, and he uses very inhuman killing tactics for the murder committed. Throughout the reading of this short story I have come to the conclusion that the main character is without…show more content…
Usually when a mentally ill person kills someone they don’t think twice about it. They won’t put all of their energy and time into planning the killing or killings they’re about to carry out . “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever,” stated the narrator (p.145). This quote indicates that the narrator is going to kill the old man because of his eye and that he’d been thinking about this for some time. Without thinking twice you can easily understand how absurd it is to take the life of someone just because of their eye. The narrator declared,”I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him” (p.145). This quote shows that the narrator is clearly making himself very likeable so the old man won’t suspect a thing. Although no tracks have been made you can tell that whatever move the narrator is about to make no one will be doubtful of his actions towards the old man.”And now - have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over - acuteness of the senses” (p.), stated the narrator. This quote expresses that the narrator may not be as completely mad as we may think he is; the narrator may just as mentioned before may have and over acuteness of the senses. This sharpness of his senses may be an illness or disorder that he can’t control. Therefore coming to a…show more content…
My second reason for thinking the narrator is insane is because his reason for killing this old man is in the interest of his eye! The old man had never wronged the narrator yet he still finds a reason to end his life. That just doesn’t make any sense. The narrator stated, “And I did for seven long nights - every night just at midnight - but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye,”(p.145). The work the narrator is referring to is killing the elderly man. As expressed in the quote the narrator is not able to do his work because he continues to find the “evil eye” closed. In order for the narrator to proceed in killing the old man his eye must be open or else it’d be like the murder has no purpose. I think it is absolutely crazy that the narrator is so charmed by this eye that he goes back and spies on the old man every night for seven nights.Why wouldn’t the narrator continue with his work even if the eye was closed? He knows the eye is there yet he still feels it needs to be open. The narrator expressed, “There was no pulsation he was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more”(p.147). By reading this quote you can certainly tell that the old man has been killed as shown in the quote “he was stone dead”. The work has finally been carried out. This is with a doubt completely insane that an elderly man is now
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