Tell Tale Heart Narrator's Insanity

How can we justify if a man is insane or sane? A man may talk like a wise man, and yet act as if he is paranoid. A man with such manner cannot imply insane to us, we can only anticipate he is sane. In this case, the insane man attempted to persuade the reader that he was normal. However, several pieces of evidence indicated his insanity. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator is insane because he has a serious illness, he cannot tell fantasy from reality, and he hallucinates. By examining his behaviour and mind, I will analyze his insanity comprehensively.

In the first place, I fathom the narrator is insane because he is proven ill. For instance, there are many clues throughout “The Tell Tale Heart” that despite the

When he finally succeeded in murdering the old man he became glorified, thinking about how cleverly he accomplished his goal. However, the unsuspecting behaviour in front of the policeman, suggests that the narrator became ignorant of his behaviour and surrounding. This is because he cannot tell the difference between reality and his inner thoughts. He presumes that he has correctly and reasonably explained all the events of the story in a typical manner. Furthermore, he thinks the police officers and the neighbours hear the heart beating through the walls. Instead, it’s all in his mind because the heartbeat would only be heard when the narrator was in stress. This relinquishes us a clue that the heartbeat was a symbol of agony to him. The sound in the last few paragraphs of the short story is noticeable as an increase in sound. In the short story it states, (Poe, pg 106) “The ringing became more...it continued and became more distinct”. The increase of the beating is emphasized repeatedly. His repetition of the word “louder” echoes the sound of the heart beat. Finally, he shouts out his confession. (Poe, pg 106) “ I admit the deed!...here, here! --it is the beating of his hideous heart!” The main point is the narrator couldn’t distinguish whether this was reality or his inner thoughts. Only the narrator could hear the heartbeat, therefore this specific reasoning makes him

The narrator loved the old man, he had nothing against the poor old man. (Poe,pg 104) As the narrator says, “I loved the old”. If the narrator had nothing against the old man, why did he murder him? My client murdered the old man because he was hallucinating. A normal person wouldn’t murder someone if they don’t have anything against them. He was also hallucinating because a typical person wouldn’t murder another human because of their eye. The narrator declares (Poe,pg 104) “for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye”. This reason of murdering someone is not equitable. In addition, by the end of the story the narrator acts as if he is hallucinating. “I know grew very pale...Yet the sound increased-and what could I do?...It grew louder-louder!” Obviously this was inside the narrator’s head, the police officers couldn’t hear the heart beating because the narrator spieled (Poe,pg 107) “the officers heard it not”. The narrator also declares (Poe,pg 107) “that sound would be heard by a neighbour”. This quote confirms my client also thought that the neighbours will hear the heartbeat, that was inside his head. My client took these major steps because he was hallucinating the whole time. These hallucinations prove his insanity.

Clearly, by the end of the story we can easily prove that the narrator is acting insanely. In this story my client is insane because