"The Tell-Tale Heart"

The narrator speaks directly to the reader in this story and explains his actions after the fact, and he begins by trying to put the reader's mind at rest about his sanity. The man says he is not insane, though there is no reason to take his word for this matter one way or the other. We would not accept his declaration that he was insane and would insist on an examination and a psychiatric opinion, so the fact that he says he is sane should be examined in the same manner. Indeed, the very manner in which the man declares his sanity raises questions about it:

The disease had sharpened my sense--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. How, then, am I mad? (Poe 125).

In declaring his sanity, the narrator makes reference to a number of widely prevalent ideas abou

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nds evidence of it in the past behavior of the individual and in the nature of the crime committed by that individual. Applying this to the narrator, we can only see a short distance into his past because he does not report on his childhood beyond noting that he has always liked the old man. The behavior of the narrator in the time prior to committing the crime and in terms of the manner in which he planned the crime, however, point to an aberration in his thinking and a mental obsession that goes far beyond the norm. His very lack of motive is an element that points to mental deficiency. He dose not hate his victim, is not angry, does not want money, and has never been wronged by the older man. His fascination with the other man's eye sounds aberrant as well, and it might be an excuse he has developed for explaining his actions to himself, which is also an unnatural way to react to this situation. We do not have evidence from his childhood, as noted. We do not know if madness is hereditary in his family, and indeed we know nothing of his family history. We can assume that the circumstances under which he was living aggravated whatever defect he may have had, of course, but we can only infer what that defect might be base
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Finally Vastel's, Allan Poe, Indeed Vastel, mental illness, , poe 125, crime crime, abnormal biological condition, family history, biological condition, 125 vastel, abnormal biological, heart beating, person ill, man's eye,
Approximate Word count = 1605
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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