The Narrator Is The Tell Tale Heart Insane

Edgar Allan Poe is notorious for his short horror stories, like the story “The Tell Tale Heart”. This story in particular has a very strange character in it who isn't easy to understand. He narrates the story of an old man's eye that drove him to murder. He constantly tries to prove how “intelligent” he is by bringing up examples of things he did that seem to him like they are smart, which makes him sound even more irrational. All this leads me to thinks that in the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator is insane.

Firstly, the narrator repeatedly tried to sway the reader to believe that he is not foolish and actually is very wise. When he tried to convince the reader this, he just comes across as even more insane by the way he words what he says. For example, the narrator stated, “The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.” Clearly the narrator is hearing voices. This reveals to the reader that he is mad, because a sane person would not claim to hear things from heaven and

hell. This makes him come across as very insane to the reader and unreliable. WIth that being said, you can already tell that the narrator mentally ill and is going to do something maniacal later on in the story.

Continuing on, the narrator has a fear of an old man's eye.

The old man in the story “The Tale-Tell Heart” has a strange pale-blue eye that the narrator is generally afraid of. The story said, “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.” The narrator stated in the story before that he loved the old man, yet he wished him dead because of of much his eye disturbed him. Any fair-minded person would not be afraid of someone’s eye, and certainly would not want someone dead because of a silly fear. The narrator thinks like sociopath, he wants someone to die because he is disturbed by someone’s eye. This proves to the reader that the narrator is

mad.

Lastly, the narrator stalks and kills the old man. The narrator went to the old man’s room every night and watched him while he slept every night until he murdered him. “So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.” Obviously no sane person would watch someone while they slept for many nights strait. The most insane thing about this is that he consistently stalked the old man at the same time every night until he murdered him. Most people would not put so much commitment and be so constant about something just because of an eye that is an annoyance to them.

In conclusion, the narrator of “The Tale-Tell Heart” was afraid of someone’s eye, decided to take their life, stalked them while they slept every night, murdered, than still tried to convince the reader that he is not mad, despite all that he has done, just because of the old man’s eye. This makes it clear to the reader that the narrator is mad and is mentally ill.