Tell Tale Heart Insanity Analysis

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The legal definition of insanity is “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.” as stated by the professionals at Law.com. So, does the character from Edgar Allen Poe’s Tell Tale Heart show any of those signs to support him in his legal trial? Let’s find out! So our first piece of evidence to examine is how our character watching the old man in his sleep. While he is entering the old man’s room he is quoted to opening the door only enough for his head to fit in and lighting a lantern to spy on the old man. But he also states “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded” proving that although these actions are strange and uncommon, he is not insane because of his ability to think of the reader of the passage and awareness that his actions are strange.…show more content…
The killer states that “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold”. You may be thinking that this is an insane motive and it very well is. He displays that impulsive behavior from the legal definition. A normal, sane person wouldn’t just kill a man to be rid of his glass eye, even if a man were to think of such an act he would think of the consequences of these actions and decide against it. But our killer doesn't, he acts on his impulses instead of thinking on them. On this aspect, he is
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