The death of a man who was brutally dismembered, lies in the hands of “the narrator.” The defendant confessed to the murder, claiming to hear an unbearable noise, similar to that of a watch wrapped in cotton. Upon hearing the sound, the narrator was unable to keep up his facade and burst out, yelling that he was guilty. While the narrator did kill the man, he was insane and should not go to prison; instead, he should go to a mental facility where he can be treated for his condition. The murderer had killed a man in cold blood because of a diseased eye, tried to prove his own sanity, and heard sounds that were made up in his own mind. Therefore, the judge should plead him insane and place the narrator in a facility. Primarily, the accused murdered a man due to his “evil eye.” There are more logical methods of ridding oneself from an object/person that agitates them than resorting to murder. The fact that the narrator thought that the best way of freeing himself of the eye was to eliminate the man …show more content…
The author seems to explain in detail how the narrator murdered the man to emphasize that hearing a heartbeat from him was impossible. From the reactions of the old man the first time and the police the second, it is clear that he was the only one to hear either of these sounds. Thus, hearing a sound that wasn’t actually produced in reality, verifies that the killer was indeed having some form of delusions. His symptoms match up closest to schizophrenia, which is a “chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. People with schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality.” (National Institute of Mental Health, Schizophrenia) It helps that he himself states that “the disease has not dulled, not destroyed, but sharpened my senses.” It is very likely these things are just delusions he has,
In addition to the fact that the narrator understood that murdering someone is wrong, the narrator has a motive for killing the old man. Right off the bat, the narrator tells the reader why he wanted to kill the old man. He says, “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.” This indicates that he had a clear rationale for killing the old man and is guilty of first degree, or premeditated murder. Some may argue that the narrator is mentally insane and killed the man because over an irrational fear caused by his mental illness. However, an insane person would not wait to terminate a powerful feeling of paranoia and to assassinate the person causing such fear.
One might object here that the narrator lacked the mental capacity to distinguish right from wrong. The claim of mental insanity could be supported by the narrator’s abnormal hearing of the dead old man’s heart thumping. “...but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew-louder-louder-louder!” (Poe). It is correct that normal people do not hear dead people’s hearts beating, however, what he likely heard was the sound of his own heart ringing loudly in his ears due to his guilty conscience.
How murder first came to enter the narrators mind is unknown. There was no real motive as said: “Object there was none... I loved the old man. He had never wronged me...” (884.) The narrator states that the old man's eye was a pale blue color with film over it, resembling a vulture. The narrator insists that he is not insane however his repeating of this, and his actions, contradict one another. Being so threatened by the old man's eye, the killer attacks his master at night, cuts up his body and buries it beneath the floor boards. Although the old man had sensed his killer in his bedroom, he was too terrified to run for his life. The fact that the narrator kills this innocent old man because of his eye is proof enough he suffers from psychological imbalance To further the evidence that the narrator is, he continues to hear the man's heart beat beneath the floor boards. Although it seems as if it is his own heart beating, he automatically assumes the old man's heart is haunting his mind. The characters are what play the key role in this short story. The killer is suffering from insanity, which he believes is the cause of the evil eye. The old man is never really developed within the story, just known he is innocent and has never wronged his killer. The old man could just represent an innocence who is opposite of a murderer's mind. Within the whole plot the characters unfold an unsettling dark theme for the story; a cold hearted killer and a loving old man with an
To begin with, the narrator is guilty of premeditated murder because he planned to dispatch the innocent man. Throughout the short story, Edgar Allan Poe describes the events leading to the confession and made some points clear that he is guilty of premeditated murder. For example, the narrator tells the readers that he has been stalking the old man for seven nights just at twelve. “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him … to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked upon him while he slept.” (Poe) As you can see, the narrator is clearly devising a plan to kill the old
The narrator butchered the man. That is an indisputable fact. The question is, is he sane? The narrator stalked an innocent man for 8 nights, then brutally murdered and grotesquely dismembered him. He then proceeds to put the body parts under the floor boards. The narrator talks about his surprisingly logical thought process, the careful and perfect execution of his plan, and his terrible guilt as he could hear the dead man’s heart beat. The defense will tell you that this man is an innocent, sedentary man, and that everything he did was the fault of his mental illness, but do not listen to them. This man is deleterious, and it is imperative that he is locked away. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” was sane because he could distinguish fantasy from reality, he could feel guilt, and he was thinking logically. This evidence will prove that the narrator is sane.
The second reason why this man deserves justice is because he was obviously having some sort of mental breakdown at the time of his “crime”. He seems to be violently angry and very anxious. In the story, my client had just killed the old man and begins conversing with himself, “--do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror” (3). This quotes helps prove that the narrator is innocent for plea of insanity because he is showing another major symptom of a mental disease- anxious or violent outbursts. The man even admits to being nervous before he killed the old man. The quote also describes how the old man's dead heart still beating in the narrator's mind and is taking over his thoughts. My client also connects his hypnotic state to bringing him “uncontrollable terror”. This supports his symptoms of anxiety because it shows his mind being taken over by his nervousness. Towards the end of the text, the narrator feels too guilted and lets his anger get the best of himself, “I foamed --I raved --I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually
Furthermore, he realized that his neighbors heard a scream and that they would call the police. The narrator even went as far as to cover up the body and hide it under the tiles of his own home. In addition, since he knew that the police would come to his house because of the shriek, he took precautions beforehand to cover up the body. Not to mention that he even told the police that the scream that the neighbors heard the night before was his from “A bad dream”. This further proves my theory that the narrator was mentally stable at the time of the murder
I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage”(11). Later the man goes into the room and kills the old man. This shows that he acted upon impulse when he killed him. According to Psychology Today, part of the definition of being insane is that a person “is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior,” proving that he is mentally insane. This proves that he is mentally insane and not a calculated killer because a calculated killer would not have acted on impulse and would have had it planned out. Therefore, the narrator is mentally insane.
In the short story, “Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator is telling this story when he murdered a man with a cloudy blue eye. The narrator is either premeditated murder or criminally insane. Whether he's a premeditated murder or just insane, he still murdered a human being. There are many reasons why he’s a premeditated murder but, in this case he is criminally insane. The narrator may be a premeditated murder but there are many thing that convinces the readers that he is criminally insane like, thinks the old man's cloudy eye is evil and says that he is sane, invites the police to the old man's room, and he keeps hearing the old man's dead heart beat.
He watched the man sleep every night and he claimed that he heard noises, how can you possibly thing that the narrator is not insane? I believe he is insane due to his actions. He killed a man because of his eye then dismembered his corpse and then he said he hears noises. The narrator murdered an old man that was sleeping in his house, an old man that was probably his friend. The man had a vulture eye, a pale blue eye with a film over it. He murdered the old man because of his pale blue vulture eye. In the beginning of text, he said, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never insulted me. I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!...Whenever it fell upon on me, my blood ran cold…I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” This quote demonstrates how insane the narrator is. He killed the old man because of his hatred for the man’s eye. No normal human will do such deed for that reason.
Macbeth was, shortly after the murdering incident, driven insane by the immense guilt produced by his withered conscience. The dagger that was used in the killing of King Duncan haunted him before the murder took place. This tragedy in the play gives us both fear of where the sword came from and pity for Macbeth's character that had degraded to such a point that he has become paranoid.
Even during the time when the narrator was in the process of hiding the body, he does not find himself insane. The narrator speaks of how is was so cunning and intelligent enough to not get a spot of blood anywhere, of how he placed the boards of the floor precisely as they were before the murder.
When he sneaks into the old man’s room and he made a noise and he woke up and the man that sneaked into the old man’s room attacked the old man and put the mattress on him and he died. “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; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. What would happen if this cause did not exist? Use key terms and academic vocabulary here. He couldn’t stand the eye and he had to do something to stop it because he did not like the feeling of the eye when it ran cold over him. That he got obsessed with the eye and he wanted it so he killed him and it was gone and he told on himself.
This passage is in the perspective of the murderer. In the passage above, the murderer is isolated under trees and watching the people bury Master Elegant Effendi. There are many things that the murderer has done that is very common to what murderers do today, mostly because they all have the same mindset. They are all mentally challenged and they think and believe in their own ways, and they are unable to process and think the way that we can. The way that the murderer is watching what they have accomplished, even after the deed is through, it is as if they are still stalking their prey. They still watch them still as if they have a personal and emotional tie with them, which they do. On the other hand, murderers enjoy seeing that what they
His statement refers to the fact that he believes that Black has nothing to hide. Even though the murderer does not blatantly confess his jealousy, his behavior is indicative of resentment over the idea that Black is not confined by guilt. As previously mentioned, the murderer appears to have anxiety that stems from his surprise at his ability to take Elegant’s life. Anxiety can often influence an individual’s self-perception and it is evident that he experiences depersonalization as he sees Black. In that moment, he detaches from reality, but he remains critical of his own existence. He acknowledges that his actions will have consequences and that his limbo between innocence and guilt is not temporary. The danger behind this state of mind is that the murderer is prone to gradually lose control over his