Delusional madman or calculated killer? The short story by Edgar Allan Poe, “A Tell-Tale Heart”, focuses on this theme. The story is about a mentally ill man who seeks to murder a man for his eye. The story creates many suspenseful moments as the murder is told in the first person. So now it’s over, what sentence should the killer get?The eighth amendment states that cruel or unusual punishment shall not be inflicted on citizens of the United States. Based on an interpretation of the 8th amendment as well as mitigating and aggravating evidence, the narrator should be sentenced to death in reason for the following facts; the narrator executed conscious premeditated murder, the narrator is mentally ill, and the death penalty is the most humane …show more content…
Evidence to support the claim can be found in through the narrative. Some of these are statements like “I finally decided, I had to kill the old man”(Poe 1843) and phrases like “He was dead. Dead as a stone… I killed him”(Poe 1843). Other excerpts to back this idea are lines like “Every night about 12 o'clock I slowly opened his door...for 7 nights I did this, 7 long nights, every night at midnight”(Poe 1843). These quotes all trace back the idea that the murder was premeditated and that the narrator knew what he was doing was not right. The planning and decision involved in his crime, as shown by the first quote where the narrator says that he had an uncontrollable urge to kill the old man and eventually decided to do it shows that the murder involves malice and was premeditated. The second quote depicts the narrator describing the scene subsequent to the execution of his plan. He says that the old man was as dead as a stone and that he killed him. This is strongly aggravating evidence as it shows that the narrator knew that he killed him and that the narrator was fully aware, fully aware, that he had killed him. This information is significant because it shows the narrator’s absence of innocence in this crime. Without a doubt, we can agree that this man is crazy, but to what …show more content…
“Yes, it is true. I've been ill, very ill...hearing things”(Poe 1843). The repetition of this excerpt strongly backs the fact that the man is mentally ill. Many studies have shown that living in prison can be very dangerous. Especially for the mentally ill. They are treated like everybody else are set with expectations that cannot achieve. Not to mention the significantly high assault and rape rates in federal prisons. Sentencing the narrator to any prison time would not be humane as he would struggle to keep up with expectations of the other inmates. Releasing him would not make sense because he is mentally ill. The story depicts him wanting to kill the man for his eye. This eye is not a singular experience. He will hallucinate among more people over time and repeat the same crimes over and over again. Sentencing him to life in prison would be very inhumane as he is statistically more likely to get solitary. According to the American Journal of Mental Health, and a study of 130,000 inmates mental health, the narrator is 3.2x more likely to inflict self-harm and 6.6x more likely to inflict self-harm once released. These numbers show that it would be very inhumane to have the narrator spend his life in solitary. Releasing him to a mental hospital is just wrong because he is in no way paying for the crime he committed as well as being harshly
behavior.” Based on the text you can see him as mentally insane because in paragraph 16 Poe writes how the murderer, says,”. . . I fancied a ringing in my ears. . .” This is after the narrator killed the old man. He couldn’t tell if the old man's heart was still pumping or if he was hearing something. The narrator couldn't tell what was fake and what was happening. The narrator can be betrayed as a mentally insane person based on both the definition and the text.
Poe’s character is clearly unwell from the beginning. The idea of the protagonist conflicting with something as mundane as an “Evil eye” suggest that the narrator may be a bit unstable, however the extent of that instability is not fleshed out until later. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the violence is carried out against the
If someone makes a bad choice, does it matter if they are sane or insane? It depends on the evidence and how the reader portrays the definition of "sane"in the Tell Tale Heart. The narrator’s emotions are appropriate for his given situations. Some would say that being sane is to "normal" and everyone can be "normal" being insane is the only reason why he killed the old man. How could he be insane if he did so many sane and normal things? The narrator in Tell Tale Heart is sane, he took the time and effort to kill the old man.
I did not hate the old man; I even loved him. He has never hurt me. I did not want his money. I think it was his eye” (Poe 64). Psychosis is seen in the difficult rationality the narrator uses to defend his murder.
...eople that went to jail because of the confusion with the insanity defense and the law has become unfavorable towards the insanity defense. As the New York Times says,” Congress barred federal courts from finding defendants legally insane “merely” because they were too mentally ill to have avoided committing the crime.” This means that mentally unstable people are going to jail untreated. The insanity defense has come to questioning our morals. When someone is mentally unstable, do they deserve to be endure the sometimes harsh punishments of our law or should they be treated for their illness in a psychiatric hospital?
In the article “The Mentally Ill Are Mishandled by the Justice System”, Shannon explains how there are approximately 3000 mentally ill inmates in a prison who are unjustfuly sent there. Many mental illnesses are cause by post traumatic experiences such as being abused as a child or being sexually abused as a child. She also explains how many times judges and officers do not fully understand why mentally ill people do what they do, therefore they misunderstand the person’s actions and send them.
At the beginning of the story, he tells the reader his reasoning and justifications for committing his heinous acts. “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me” (Poe 1). While he claims to feel warmly toward his ward it turns out that he kills him in cold blooded murder. It is impossible to believe that he is truly capable of love. When talking about his disease the narrator states, “The disease had sharpened my senses--not destroyed-- no dulled them” (Poe 1). No matter the disease, it’s highly unlikely that is heightened the narrator's senses.The fact that they think it does shows their perception on reality is altered and the narrator is insane. The evil, murdering caretaker in “Tell Tale Heart” is clearly
In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator attempts to assert his sanity while describing a murder he carefully planned and executed. Despite his claims that he is not mad, it is very obvious that his actions are a result of his mental disorder. Hollie Pritchard writes in her article, “it has been suggested that it is not the idea but the form of his madness that is of importance to the story” (144). There is evidence in the text to support that the narrator suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was experiencing the active phase of said disease when the murder happened. The narrator’s actions in “The Tell-Tale Heart” are a result of him succumbing to his paranoid schizophrenia.
The narrator loved the old man, he had nothing against the poor old man. (Poe,pg 104) As the narrator says, “I loved the old”. If the narrator had nothing against the old man, why did he murder him? My client murdered the old man because he was hallucinating. A normal person wouldn’t murder someone if they don’t have anything against them. He was also hallucinating because a typical person wouldn’t murder another human because of their eye. The narrator declares (Poe,pg 104) “for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye”. This reason of murdering someone is not equitable. In addition, by the end of the story the narrator acts as if he is hallucinating. “I know grew very pale...Yet the sound increased-and what could I do?...It grew louder-louder!” Obviously this was inside the narrator’s head, the police officers couldn’t hear the heart beating because the narrator spieled (Poe,pg 107) “the officers heard it not”. The narrator also declares (Poe,pg 107) “that sound would be heard by a neighbour”. This quote confirms my client also thought that the neighbours will hear the heartbeat, that was inside his head. My client took these major steps because he was hallucinating the whole time. These hallucinations prove his insanity.
Your honor and Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, the defendant in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is insane; using the McNaughton rule it will be proven that the Caretaker should be placed in a state hospital for the criminally insane. The McNaughton rule states that the defendant did not know what he was doing was illegal. They must prove that they have a mental disorder for them to commit a crime. Also there has to be evidence that they are insane.
There are many issues, both ethical and moral, concerning how correctional officers treat inmates, whether they receive the proper medical attention, and how extensive incarceration sentences affect their mental state. These issues that inmates face have been a problem for several decades now. Most citizens do not even take the time to find out what inmates deal with on a daily basis. Once a person is imprisoned, people think they are where they belong and do not care how they are treated in prison. For the most part this is true, but it does not mean that an inmate does not deserve fair treatment and not to have their basic rights as an American citizen infringed upon. Regardless of the severity of their crime or how long their sentence is,
First, Poe suggests the narrator is insane by his assertions of sanity. For example, the narrator declares because he planned the murder so expertly he could not be insane. He says, "Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen how wisely I proceeded-with what caution-with what foresight-with what dissimulation I went to work!" In addition, every night at midnight the narrator slowly went into the room of the old man. He claims this was done so wisely that he could not be insane. The narrator thinks that if a murder is carefully planned then the murderer is not insane. Also, the narrator claims he suffers from over acuteness of the senses. Regarding the sound of the old man's beating heart, the narrator says, "And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? --now, I say, there came to my ears a low dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton". The narrator claims he is not imagining the sound but he is hearing it because his senses are so sharp. The narrator believes he is justified in killing the old man because the man has an Evil Eye. The narrator claims the old man's eye made his blood run cold and the eye looked as if it belonged to a vulture. Poe shows the narrator is insane...
This proves that the narrator is fair-minded because most mad people do not experience guilt in which the narrator did. Also, the narrator was hearing the beat of the old man's heartbeat which was actually his. The more the police questioned him the louder the beat got. “Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!- tear up the planks!-here, here!-its is the beating of his hideous heart(Poe page 207)!”
The fixation on the old man's vulture-like eye forces the narrator to concoct a plan to eliminate the old man. The narrator confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye: "Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - very gradually - I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever" (34). The narrator begins his tale of betrayal by trying to convince the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the narrator indeed is out of control. The fact that the old man's eye is the only motivation to murder proves the narrator is so mentally unstable that he must search for justification to kill. In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye.
Does the narrator show weakness through this mental illness or is it a sophistical mind of a genius? This is the question that must be answered here. Throughout this discussion we will prove that the narrator is a man of a conscience mind and committed the crime of murder. Along with that we will expose Poe’s true significance of writing this short story, and how people were getting away with crime by justifying that they were insane.