Tell Tale Heart Analysis Essay

own chamber. In Edgar Allan Poe’s Tell Tale Heart, the story of this murder is told from the point of view of the killer. The narrator tells of the man’s vulture-like eye, which causes him to murder the man to rid himself forever of the villainy the eye possessed. After the murder, the narrator is haunted by the sound of the man’s beating heart to the point that he has to admit to his felony. In this ghastly tale, the narrator is guilty of premeditated murder because he had a reason to kill the man, knew right from wrong throughout the story, and had a plan to kill the old man in advance.

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.

Referring from the text, the narrator explained, “Ha!—would a madman have been so wise as this?” In the beginning of the narrative, the slaughterer attempted to justify his sanity, which confirms that he can establish his own status. According to “The Tell-Tale Heart Insanity Plea”, no mentally unstable person could not perceive reality. “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution— with what foresight—with what dissimulation.” If the murderer was legally insane, he would not have had such a comprehensible memory of the crime, however he did indeed. Considering the belief that evil eyes had such misfortune upon it, the narrator can be considered balanced, for it perhaps caused injuries and nobody would desire for anything like an evil eye in proximity of them. Nonetheless, the murder himself confirmed his guilt with all the precautions he took, therefore, he should be sent to prison instead of receiving medical

Without that initial statement, why would we think him mad? Then he says; "Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing." How does he know that madmen know nothing? I wrote in my own journal once; "Insanity is not madness. Sanity is madness, if one can distinguish the difference between sanity and insanity, does that not then make you sane?" So then, if the narrator questions our thoughts on his sanity, he must then know the difference or that there is a difference between sanity and insanity, does that not then create some question as to his own sanity? I think from the very beginning he questioned his own sanity to himself thereby creating the question of insanity to the reader! Isn't that insane? (ha ha) But was he insane? Insane is defined in Webster's New Concise Dictionary as: "Not Sane; mentally deranged or unsound. Set apart for demented persons. Not Whole." OK, well we still cannot prove that he was or was not insane. Was he a psychopath? Some would say yes, most definitely. But what is a psychopath? Psychopaths have a character type that enables them to pursue pleasure with indifference to the suffering they cause others. Psychopaths are completely lacking such virtues as benevolence and compassion. In this story, the narrator says; "I loved the old man.

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.

In “The Tell Tale Heart”, by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator both experiences guilt from killing the old man in which he cared for and also the constant plea of proving his sanity. The narrator one day decides that he should kill the old man in which he cares for, due to the fact that he had an evil eye. Though insane and bizarre, the narrator thinks that he is not crazy; he just has heightened senses that allow him to hear things that no human could ever hear. The telling of the story from whatever prison or asylum the narrator is sentenced to is his way of proving his sanity. In the "Tell-Tale Heart", Edgar Allan Poe uses irony, imagery, and symbolism to depict how the guilt of a human being will always be consumed by their own conscience.

Poe proposes that the main character is insane by his declarations of sanity. For example, the narrator says that there is no way that he could be insane because he planned the murders so perfectly. In the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by Edgar Allen Poe, the main character 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--with what caution--with what foresight--with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week I killed him” (388). This quote shows how the narrator actually thinks that he is sane because of the acts that he partakes in during the week that he was going to kill the old man. Another example of this comes from the article, “Ego-Evil and The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by Magdalen Wing-chi Ki, where it notes “In Poe’s stories, Ego-Evil stands out because his hero’s frame of mind is utterly corrupt at its root: the villain can recognize his deviance through the other;

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

The narrator is concerned that someone is going to find out that he killed the old man. He finds out that the old man vexes him but more his eye. The narrator acted innocently, so the officers wouldn’t know that he was guilty. The “Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a narrator, that convinces readers of his sanity for the murder that he commits to an old man with a vulture

“The Tell Tale Heart” is a famous short story written by Edgar Allen Poe. The story was first published in 1843. This story is about an unnamed man who kills an elderly man due to his “vulture eye”. The man serves as the narrator in this story and describes to readers in detail as he carefully stalks the man, kills him and hides his body under his floorboards after he cuts him up. Eventually, the narrator’s guilt eats him alive to the point that he confesses his crime to three visiting policemen. His guilt takes form as the old man’s heart, which he believes is still beating underneath the floorboards. This short story is considered one of the Poe’s most famous short stories as well as a Gothic fiction classic.

Some readers may argue that the narrator is sane because he constantly explains that his actions are sane. However, the narrator is actually insane because the actions that he justifies are very abnormal. The narrator explains that he concealed the body by, “ First of all, [dismembering] the corpse. [He] cut off the head and the arms and the legs” (Poe l 133-134). Clearly, the narrator’s actions mentioned above are not normal. No sane person would be proud of how carefully they concealed a dead body. The narrator is just trying to explain his peculiar actions in a normal way, which he hopes will convince the reader he is sane. Although the narrator justifies himself, the actions he carried out are not even something a sane person would do, therefore making him insane.

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.

He seemed insane. However, what could be said is that the narrator killed the man for the special reason because of the eye. He was premeditated and organized and had it all well thought out, so his state of mind would seem just fine. The state of mind of the narrator from The Tell-Tale Heart showed that he had a mental illness

The narrator murdered the old man with a sane mind because he was cautious also the narrator takes a long time to plan the murderer. If he was insane he probably would have done it the first night.The man takes up 8 nights in a row before murdering him.Also he said “There was nothing to washout-no stain of any kind-no blood spot whatever I had been to wary for that”. That means that he hid the evidence so well that know one would know that he killed the old

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