Schizophrenia In Tell-Tale Heart

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Pride often hinders growth - the journey people make towards accepting and correcting their faults. As a result, those who are too proud to accept their insufficiencies escape reality and deny themselves the potential to fix the problem at hand. However, allowing a problem to remain unfixed often escalates it, resulting in even more dire complications. In the short story, Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator, a victim of a schizophrenia, is too proud to accept the symptoms of his mental illness, and therefore hinders his own growth. Initially denying the negative drawbacks of schizophrenia, he continuously tries to persuade the reader that he is, in fact, completely sane. However, his actions speak otherwise, contradicting his claim…show more content…
As his schizophrenic symptoms takes over, he frantically thinks, “Oh God! what could I do? I foamed--I raved--I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased! It grew louder- louder- louder!”(Poe, 3). His voice changes from being controlled and sustained to a complete chaotic and raving madness. This is a significant point because initially before, he had used his calm and witty voice to be the one thing that characterized him as sane. In his denial, his words and actions would be completely incompatible and opposite, but at this point it is finally aligned. His madman characteristics and actions finally are matched with his frantic and chaotic thoughts and words. As his heart beats more rapidly and rapidly, it also signifies that he finally is losing control over himself. At this point, it is most apparent that his hold on his claim is loosening as all the false delusions begin to fall apart in his schizophrenia attack. The narrator can no longer contain the insanity and use his words to disprove his insanity. His ultimate contradiction is the fact that his calm prose did not line up with his mad actions, but when it finally it does, it proves that he has finally given in completely to being mentally ill. At this point, he comes to terms with his insanity and finally admits to his
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