Why Is Edgar Allan Poe Mental Or Insane

In the story, Poe uses symbolism to show that the eye is the reason to kill him. On page one, paragraph two it says “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture… Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold.” This shows that the narrator was getting tired of the old man’s eye and that it was his time to go. This is important because that is the start of what the story’s going to be about. To add on, page 2, paragraph 3 says, “I undid it just so much that a single ray fell upon the vulture eye… for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye.” This shows

Throughout, the narrator’s madness is depicted through his unrealistic rationale to kill the old man because of his opposition toward his eye. Similarly, in another Poe tale, The Black Cat, Poe uses a comparable contrast between logic and an irrational resulting behavior. In this story, the narrator kills his cat that he claims to love, illustrating the narrator’s madness. In both stories, the narrators commit atrocious crimes without any semblance of logical motive. In the Tell-Tale Heart, Poe has the narrator tell a tale of logic and rational thinking, but ends up conveying madness in the purest sense of the

Stating, “ For it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye”(Poe). The story clearly over uses juxtaposition in this data. The narrator is clearly insane, as he had no motive of thinking of murdering the old man. A normal person would not be so obsessed on such a careless object, or would not be so motivated to murder from a characteristic or look that is unsightly. Therefore, moving on, the insanity defense articles, states committing a crime with no motive is insane or psychotic(Knoll).

This includes how the narrator watched the old man sleep in his room for 7 days straight. Not only did he murder the harmless man, he stalked him and violated his privacy to plan the murder. On top of that, the quote, “First of all, I dismembered the corpse… I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings,” (Poe, 1843) demonstrates how the narrator disposed of the old man’s body. He cut off the man’s head and limbs, then buried him in the floorboards right underneath the spot he was killed.

Spontaneous versus premeditated, death versus murder, sane vs insane. Both the Prosecution and Defense have strong evidence to prove their case. It’s all completely debatable, and always will be, but I feel I have suitable evidence to prove Mr. Poe was sane. Based on the evidence given in The Tell-Tale Heart, Mr. Poe was perfectly sane at the time of Mr. White’s murder.

He would come home and beat, torture, and murder all of his animals and makes sure to save his black cat, Pluto, for last. The speaker says, “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket ! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity” (Poe NP). From this quotation, the reader can see that the narrator easily cuts the poor cat’s eye right out of its socket with no hesitation or second thought. He did not seem to have any reason behind any of his actions towards his animals or his wife.

The author purpose of telling this story is not about murder but more like convince about his sanity. The narrator start his story by saying he is super nervous but how do they know that he’s mad. Edgar Allan Poe is saying that how do we know he’s mad if we don’t know a person’s mind or feeling. So the purpose of the authors point is to convince us that the narrator has a disorder and act normal when he’s around the old man. Next, act in strange way when the old man is not looking. Like for example he examplains in the story “The tell-tale heart” “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually”. This quote not just explains his feeling about the old man eye but his anger and madness to kill him. According to Witherington Paul hi states in his source The Accomplice in The Tell-Tale Heart explains that” The verdict of madness, however come less from the story itself than from our commonly held assumptions that all obsessive murders are mad and that their madness is easily recognizable.” This quotes to me means that madness is easy to identify by observing a person behaver or his way of thinking. At last, I do think he may have had an illness that made him want to kill the old man.

How precisely I proceeded- with what caution- with what foresight- with what dissimulation I went to work.” Mr. Poe was not wrong in saying this. Once he admitted to the crime, we all realized how well he covered his crime up. If he was insane, would he have been able to methodically hide the body so that it is impossible to see it with the human eye? Also, he planned his attack out very well.

Poe experienced the craving for revenge in real life. After being sent to college by his father, John Allan, Poe realized that he didn’t have nearly enough money to pay for anything, even though his father was completely able to give him the amount he needed. Poe ended up trying to gambling to raise money and ended up delving so deep into debt that he was burning his furniture to keep warm by the end of the first term. Poe was very angry with his father for not providing him with enough money and wanted revenge upon him. Sadly for Poe, he never granted revenge upon his father. This is most likely why he wrote stories about characters getting revenge on others. The stories of “The Tell Tale Heart,” and “The Cask Of The Amontillado,” are stories written by Poe that relate to revenge. In “The Tell Tale Heart,” Poe writes about a person that kills an old man. His reason for doing so is because of the old man’s eye which he describes as the “eye of a vulture.” The person ended up killing the old man due to him wanting revenge on the “vulture” eye. Poe most likely wrote about this tale of a man killing another older man, due to him wanting revenge on his father. Additional information from the story that strengthens this connection is that the old man is wealthy, evident by the narrator saying that he had no desire for his gold, just like his father. This story symbolizes Poe’s desire to get revenge upon or to even

He says “The disease had sharpened my senses - - not destroyed - - not dulled them” (Poe 1). This reveals that he has a condition that he is not able to control. In addition, he lacks the ability to see his own faults. Although the narrator states that they love the old man, he is unable to control his motive for the killing. Also, he

“But why will you say that I am mad?” (Poe,1). The narrator is questioning why anyone would think he is mad. Any sane mind would ask why they would be thinking something so profound. While that is an excellent point, it neglects to account for a reason for the narrator to create such a diligent plan to murder someone for their eye. “I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this…. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold….” (Poe 1). The narrator already had no aspiration to kill the man, but the man’s eye was causing him such agitation that he had a desire to kill the man which is an insane action. The introduction states, “TRUE! --nervous-- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Poe, 1). This allows readers to believe he is insane because it is inhuman like for someone to verify their own sanity. The narrator tries very hard to convince the readers of his mental stability, for if sane he wouldn’t need to confirm. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -with what caution…” (Poe 1) The narrator proudly describes how he proceeded with his inhuman like action (killing the old man), which comes across to the audience as being insane. Poe’s clever constructed story unfolds the mind of a psychotic

Poe writes, “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

Do you think it’s possible to act “insane” to get out of murder charges? It shouldn’t be. In the story ”The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator confesses to murdering the old man who was his living acquaintance. He took wise precautions like preparing for days and hiding the body. He is guilty because he knew exactly what he was doing when committing the crime. He could have stopped at anytime but he didn’t. This was a premeditated murder.

The various instances where the narrator described how afraid he felt when staring at the man’s vulture eye specifies that he indeed did have a motive to kill the old man. In the beginning, he stated that he cared for the old man, but his eye that resembled a vulture frightened him. “...his blood ran cold” (Poe). His obvious discomfort and contempt when looking at the eye irked him so much that he killed the elderly man to purge the mere thought of the evil eye from his mind. To add on, every night for eight nights, he would sneak into the old man’s room to wait for the quintessential time to commit the final deed of killing him. However, the narrator had to wait several days to strike because as the old man was sleeping, his eye was not open and his eye was the true object that vexed him. “...but I found the eye always closed...it was impossible to do the work” (Poe). On the eighth night, the old man heard a noise, making

The narrator makes it clear that it was the old man?s eye and not the old man himself that drove him to murder. He says ?I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult,?(Poe 721) which shows that he obviously cared for the man, but this also tells us that the narrator is definitely mentally ill, since no sane person could kill someone he loves, especially over an eye!