Why Does Edgar Allan Poe Use The Insanity Plea

In court, one may try to use the insanity plea. The insanity plea is when someone could not tell right from wrong during the time that the crime was committed, or if the person could not control their actions when committing the crime. Pleading insane only works one percent of the time in modern day court. Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe, is a fictional story about a man who kills an older blind man because the way his eye looks paranoise him. The man, who also narrates the story, spends seven nights looking at the old man while he sleeps, plotting his death. On the eighth night, the narrator murders the old man and hides the body, only to confess out of guilt to the police when they come over that night. The narrator should not be able to use the insanity plea in a court of law. The insanity plea should not be allowed because the narrator has an idea that he did something wrong, and the narrator was able to control his impulses when he murdered the man. While some may say

that the narrator is insane because he hearkened the old man’s heartbeat, he is only hearing his own heartbeat out of anxiety. When the narrator commits the murder, he knows right from wrong and he knows what he is doing, which contradicts the M’Naghten and Irresistible Impulse laws.
In a court of law, the narrator of the story should definitely not be able to use the insanity plea. During the time of the crime, the narrator was very nervous. This proves the narrator sane because of the M’Naghten laws. The M’Naghten laws state that if the defendant did not understand that what he was doing was wrong, or a crime, then they are not guilty. The M’Naghten laws were first established in 1843 when Daniel M’Naghten proceeded to assassin the Britain Prime Minister. In
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court, he was found not guilty because it was proved that he did not understand that killing was wrong during the crime. The main character of the story can not use the insanity because at the time of the crime, he was nervous. An insane person would not be nervous during the crime because they would not believe that they were doing something wrong. When the narrator is in the process of committing the crime, he explains that, “...I am nervous: so I am.” (Line 112) When the narrator says that he is nervous, he is showing that he has some moral compass that is telling him that what he is doing is a crime. So, since the narrator is nervous during the crime, one can see that he knows the difference between right and wrong. Another reason why the narrator can not plead insane in court is because of the Irresistible Impulse law. These laws state that if the defendant was unable to control his impulses when the crime was committed, and this led to a criminal act, then the defendant is insane. During the time of the crime, the narrator was in control of the actions he was doing while killing the old man, proving him sane. After the narrator leaps into the old man’s room, he expresses that he, “...dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bead over him.” (Line 121) The narrator is fully aware and in control of his actions when he kills the man. When the narrator is deliberately following his impulses by killing the old man, he is confuting the Irresistible Impulse laws. While the main character is sane and can not use the insanity plea, some may believe that he was insane during the time the crime was committed.
Some people may argue that the narrator is sane when they say that him hearing the heartbeat of the old man during the crime was a hallucination caused by his unstable mental state. One may think that this is true because of one’s belief that a person is insane if they have sharpened senses. This claim is not valid because when the narrator is hearing the heartbeat, he is clearly experiencing a massive amount of anxiety. This anxiety can cause hallucinations of many things, including sounds. So, what the narrator thought was the sound of the old man’s heartbeat, is actually his anxiety and
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nerves causing him to hallucinate his own heartbeat.

In the story, when the narrator leaps into the room to kill the old man, he expresses the beating of the heart when he says, “But the beating grew louder… I thought the heart must burst.” (Line 111) As one can see, the narrator, who is already nervous, is having the utmost anxiety about killing the man, causing him to experience the beating of the heart. In an article on anxiety hallucinations, the text states that people with anxiety can experience auditory hallucinations when under a great deal of nervous tension. This applies to the narrator when he thought he was hearing the old man’s heartbeat. Evidently, when the narrator was nervous about killing the old man, he was having a great amount of anxiety, provoking him to hear his own heartbeat. While some may suggest that the narrator having acute senses when hearing the old man’s heart beating proves him insane, the heartbeat is unquestionably his own heartbeat caused by his

anxiety.
Since the narrator was nervous and in control of his actions during the time that the crime was committed, he shows that he knows he was doing something wrong and he shows that he was not doing something that he did not want to do. This proves him to be sane during the time of the crime according to the M’Naghten and Irresistible Impulse laws. As stated by the M’Naghten laws, if the defendant failed to distinguish right from wrong during the time of the crime, then the defendant can use the insanity plea. Also, according to the Irresistible Impulse laws, if the defendant was incapable to control his impulses during the crime, then he can use the insanity plea. One could declare that the narrator hearing the heartbeat because of his mental unstableness is a sign of insanity, but clearly, the heartbeat is his own anxiety causing him to have a hallucination. The narrator in the novel Tell-Tale Heart should not be able to use the insanity plea in a court of law because he is sane. Not only are insanity pleas are rarely granted in court, some of the people who it is granted to are not

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even diagnosed as being insane, allowing the possibility that there is nothing wrong with their mental state.