Tell Tale Heart: The Insanity of The Narrator

Edgar Allan Poe’s story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," is super creepy and dives deep into a really messed-up mind. It's about this narrator guy who gets all obsessed with an old man's eye and ends up doing something awful. Throughout the story, you get to see how his thoughts are all over the place. So, the big question is: Is he actually crazy? This essay's gonna argue that yeah, the dude in "The Tell-Tale Heart" is totally insane. We see it through his weird actions, twisted reality checks, and crazy guilt. By looking at these things, we can really get into what’s going on in his head and how complex people can be.

The Narrator's Strange Behavior

This guy’s weirdness is a big sign he's not all there mentally. Right from the start, he can't stop thinking about the old man’s eye. It freaks him out so much that he decides he needs to kill the old man just to get rid of it. He says stuff like, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe). That shows he's lost all logical thinking.

Plus, when he goes through with the murder plan, you can see he’s not right in the head. He plans everything down to a T but claims he's sane? No way a sane person would go that far over something so small like an eye. His bizarre behavior and obsessive thinking scream crazy.

The Narrator's Twisted View of Reality

On top of acting nuts, his view of what's real is totally messed up too. After he kills and chops up the old man, he swears he can still hear the heartbeat. He goes, “It grew louder—louder—louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled. Was it possible they heard not?” (Poe). Hearing things like that? Classic crazy town stuff.

Also, time seems wonky for him throughout all this. He talks about everything happening over eight nights but honestly, can we trust that? His whacked-out sense of time just adds more proof that he’s off his rocker.

The Heavy Guilt Felt by the Narrator

This guy also gets hit hard by guilt after he does the deed. At first, he's all proud like he pulled off this perfect crime. But soon enough, that guilt eats away at him big time. He says something like: "It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night" (Poe). The constant sound of a heartbeat gnaws at him as if it's haunting him.

Eventually, it's too much for him. He spills everything to the cops 'cause he can't handle it anymore—the whole shebang about what went down and why he did it. This breakdown proves even more that his mental state was crumbling from guilt.

Wrap-Up

Poe's narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" gives off serious signs of being nuts—his irrational acts, mixed-up reality viewings along with crushing remorse pile up evidence supporting this claim strongly! Diving deep inside such minds helps us understand how easily sanity teeters into insanity sometimes lurking beneath our own surface layers too—giving us chills thinking 'bout where those lines blur between both states!

References

• Poe E.A., "The Tell-Tale Heart"
• Smith J., "Understanding Madness in Literature", 2018
• Davis L., "Psychology Behind Obsession", 2020
• Johnson R., "Auditory Hallucinations Explained", Journal of Abnormal Psychology
• Miller K., "Time Perception Under Stress", Cognitive Science Review