Insanity in The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe Essay Example

The definition of insanity is a deranged state of the mind usually occurring due to a specific disorder or mentally disturbed person also called a psychopath. The author of The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe, was a famous horror and mystery story writer. In this Edgar Allan Poe short story, the main character, the narrator shows many signs of insanity. The narrator says that he can hear all things from "Heaven and the Earth and even Hell." Hearing specific things as the narrator does is a big sign of insanity. In this short story, the narrator "wears a mask of sanity" to hide the fact that the old man's eye has driven him insane. As well, the narrator shows how he had no passion for the murder, and his actions show how the old man has affected his mental state.

In the story, The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator admits that he can tell the story. In the short story, the narrator mentions how a disease has sharpened his senses. In the story, he had said that he could hear things from heaven to earth and even hell. Also, the narrator had "heard" the heartbeat of the old man. While "hearing" the man's heartbeat, he most likely was experiencing side effects of psychopathy, which is that psychopaths start experiencing guilt and blame themselves for things as well as committing actions they would not regularly do such as murder or committing multiple crimes. Many psychopaths laugh at themselves, and their actions as well as give no thought to those actions, and sometimes find joy in killing or criminal activity. Many psychopaths like to use what psychiatrists call a "mask of sanity." 

Many psychopaths "wear" a Mask of Sanity to hide their true selves from the general public and usually police so it's less likely that they could get caught, as mentioned in the study, Portrait of a psychopath. In the story, the narrator had hidden the fact that he was insane by"wearing" a mask of sanity by being the caretaker of the old man. Because he was the caretaker of the old man and had lived with him, the narrator had taken it to his advantage. In the story, by the time the police show up after one of the neighbors had reported loud noises and a scream, the narrator used the house he lived in, to claim it his and that no one had been living there but him for months. If the narrator had not thought the police were mocking him by pretending not to hear his hallucination of the old man's heart "beat", he could have gotten away with murdering the old man as well as many other criminal activities unless he was caught.

In the short story, the narrator explains that he had a good relationship with the old man and how he would never hurt or befriend the old man. The narrator also explained how he had never been kinder the 7 days before he had carried out the murder.