Insanity In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

The narrator’s fury towards the old man indicates the narrator has a double personality. This allows him to be kind to a man whom he hates. Readers fear this narrator because he does not hate the man, but the man’s

When I first started to read this book I was kind of confused on what was exactly going on, I thought that he was crazy at first but, when he saw

In the story “The Tell Tale Heart” the narrator wants to show the reader that he is not insane. As proof, he offers a story. In the story, the initial situation is the narrator’s decision to kill the old man so that the man’s “evil” eye will stop

He in the end became extremely anxious, that people were out to get him, the way he thinks is distorted. The narrator ends up killing an old man, he knowingly committed the crime, however he is obviously deranged and belongs in a mental hospital, rather than prison. A way to portray being legally insane, is when you commit a crime because you were compelled by an irresistible force. The narrator didn't even have a problem with the old man.

This can be observed even in the first paragraph where the narrator is trying to clarify that he is not insane. He is trying to justify his actions while he acts as a maniac particularly at the time when he imagines old man’s heart beating, which exhibits his unhealthy state of mind and that he cannot be trusted. Considering “Why I live as the P.O”, the narrator

guilty for starting the duel that led to his own death. The body was to be dragged by a hurdle,

It should be evident that the narrator is a madman after all, while all his worries, fears, and paranoia that he directs towards the old man and even the police, is all inside of his head. When the old man starts to fear for his life about a noise he heard, the narrator pities him, but chuckles at heart knowing the feeling himself. Here he begins to associate the man with his inner demons, essentially killing them through the murder of the old man. While trying so determinedly to prove his sanity, the narrator has achieved in revealing that he truly is

This shows he is insane because, letting the officers in is one thing, begging them to search and bringing chairs into the room with the victim to have the officers sit and chat is a lot

The narrator clearly states that there is no logical reason fro him to kill the old man, but for some reason the narrator cannot think of anything but the man?s eye and says that it gave him the idea of murder. The chilling feeling that the eye gave him planted in him, the thought to kill the old man, and after thinking about it day and night, that is what brings the narrator to his mad state. He is so obsessed with it that he goes into

     In Edgar Allan Poe’s short-story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the storyteller tries to convince the reader that he is not mad. At the very beginning of the story, he asks, "...why will you say I am mad?" When the storyteller tells his story, it's obvious why. He attempts to tell his story in a calm manner, but occasionally jumps into a frenzied rant. Poe's story demonstrates an inner conflict; the state of madness and emotional break-down that the subconscious can inflict upon one's self.

His use of literary devices, including that of allusion and imagery, point-of-view, and symbolism primes the stage for the narrator’s transformation from a manipulated identity to the pragmatic and careful person that finds himself to be a man who is ‘invisible.’

Moreover, he tries to defend his sanity by explaining how wise and cautious he was as he was preparing for the murder. Every night he checked on the old man to make sure he got everything right and get ready to execute his plan. The narration lacks of a concrete explanation of the person or place to which it is addressed, which leaves much room for interpretation for the readers. What we can infer from the story is it is not addressed to the police officers since the narrator says he was successful in making them satisfied. Finally, the climax of the story comes as the revelation of the dead body hidden under the planks. Because the story is told as a memento, our estimation might be that the narrator is addressing a court official or personage who may influence over the judgment of the narrator. Therefore, the story that the narrator is telling is most accurately realized as an appeal for mercy rather than just being an appeal to be thought sane.

Before beginning, the narrator states that he is anxious and nervous. He however claims that he isn’t insane and proves his sanity by offering his calmness throughout the progression of the narration. The narrator explains that even though he loved this old man who never had wronged him, he just couldn’t tolerate his

This helps build to the horror effect of the setting because he starts off as a normal person but as we get farther threw the story he becomes more and more insane and crazy. This is another excellent way this author help set the scene of the story. Edgar Allan Poe did a great job at writing this story even though it was after his life and what had happen in his life.

True! Nervous -- very, very nervous I had been and am! But why will you say that I am mad? Insanity is not being able to distinguish fantasy from reality. The narrator does not know how to distinguish the two, so he is not guilty. If someone is unable to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality then whosoever suffers from this is mentally insane and deserves the rights of and deserves the rights of a mentally incapable person. The narrator is insane because he plotted a murder without malicious intent but and hears strange things after he killed the man due to the disease he references many times in the text.