Essay On Insanity In The Tell Tale Heart

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Insanity a Thin Line from Sanity
Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics (Steven Pinker). People often question their own state of mind, and sometimes separating reality form what’s imagined can be a daunting task. Worst of all, being labelled a mad person is a term no want will accept. The Tell Tale Heart is a short story in which Edgar Allan Poe hypnotize the reader plot after plot, by telling the a mystery story of a deranged narrator who murder an old man and subsequently reveal both the crime and his own guilt to the police. The narrator claimed he is not mad and that he has a disease …show more content…

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. He loves the old man, and he had no desired for his gold, but he was hunted and obsessed by his eye. One of the old man had eye resemble that of a vulture. A pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon him, his blood ran cold and so he made up his mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid himself of the eye forever (para 2). How can the narrator who claims to be sane, conceived such an idea or have such an obsession, to the point that taking the life of someone he loves produce no remorse in him.
And the plot begins. He stalk the old man. Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him (Paragraph 3). The tone of the narrator voice is casual and suggest that he has separated reality from fantasy. He feels no wrong in what he is about to do, obsession over the eye has taken over

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