The Tell-Tale Heart

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Recommended: Poe, "tell tale heart" literary analysis

Essay #2 A Psychoanalytical Critique of “The Tell-Tale Heart” “Paranoid Schizophrenia is a subtype of schizophrenia in which the patient has delusions (false beliefs) that a person or some individuals are plotting against them or members of their family” (Nordqvist). In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart”, published in 1843 one of the most common responses a reader will experience is that the first person narrator is suffering from some sort of madness. After observing and analyzing many of the symptoms the narrator presents throughout the story one of the more common diagnoses’ placed on the narrator would be that of paranoid schizophrenia. The paranoia, the madness, the murder…all this can lead the reader to think of the narrator to …show more content…

As stated in the above paragraphs, the narrator expressed all of the stated signs and symptoms of that of a paranoid schizophrenic. The amounts of anger the narrator expressed, the frequent auditory hallucinations, the grand delusions, the anxiety, all of it is laid out on the table in the story in full force. During the timeline that the short story was written, there was no such thing as Paranoid Schizophrenia. However, if this story happened in real life and in present day time, the man would surely be arrested and sent to trial. It is there where he would be deemed not guilty by reasons of insanity, no matter how much the narrator tried and tried to justify his actions with anything other than madness. “However, the most convincing proof of his insanity seems to be the very mask of sanity he purports to wear” (Clemen, 632). There is no doubt the narrator was a genius, but a mad genius at that. The murder was premeditated, there is no doubt about this, but instead of going to jail, more than likely our narrator would end up spending his future in a mental institution where hopefully he would receive help for whatever issues he may have had. This story should be used to psychoanalyze in college for a mental health class. Poe was a great writer, a writer that knew things way beyond his time. Many of his works revolve around mental health issues. One of Poe’s favorite topics seemed to be depression. “The Tale-Tell Heart” is no exception from Mr. Poe’s great writing topics and style of darkness, depression, madness and

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