well we read The Tell Tale Heart in my literature class today and we were discussing weather the narator was insane or not. any opinions? cuz i have to write an essay on it.
2007-10-23 17:50:23 · 7 answers · asked by me.. 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
well what alot of people in my class said (including me) is that he is not insane because an insane person wouldnt have taken the time to carefully plan everything. but i want to know what you people think so i can use it in my essay.
2007-10-23 17:57:21 · update #1
the reason im asking is because we have to to a survay and see how many people thinks he was insane or that he wasent.
2007-10-23 17:59:43 · update #2
i already did the fricken essay i need to get the survey now!
2007-10-23 18:07:26 · update #3
Insanity is something thrown around far too liberally these days when someone commits a murder. Particulary as a way for a lawyer to keep their client from being found guilty. And it's a plea lawyers would use for the narrator in Poe's classic were he actually brought to trial in the real world of today. What's insane is for us to accept every single insanity plea, most people were in their right minds when they commited the murders for which they plea insanity when they go to court. And note too often they plead guilty when they are first arrested.
Some even turn themselves in before the police even know a murder has been commited, telling the police what happened and where to find the body. That's not a case of insanity but rather a case of their concious getting the better of them. Only after they have spoken to their attorney do theyt change their plea to innocent on the ground of insanity or temporary insanity.
And the Tell-Tale Heart is an example of a man not being insane. His concious was what caused him to confess. He felt and heard his own heartbeat, but his concious made him believe it was the heartbeat of the man he murdered and that the police knew what he'd done. It could be said that the dead man's eye might have eventually lead to the man becoming insane, but it more scared him and drove him to a fit of rage that lead to the murder.
2007-10-23 18:27:23 · answer #1 · answered by knight1192a 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
An insane person is perfectly capable of planning. What makes a person insane is usually one of two things: A complete incapacity to focus on any one thing for very long OR A very intense focus on ONLY ONE THING to the exclusion of ALL other things, for days, weeks, or even years, at times.
In "The Tell Tale Heart" what makes the killer insane is that everything he does, starting with his motivation to kill the old man is totally irrational. Similarly, his motivation in confessing his crime is also totally irrational. Even the way he commits the murder is irrational. He doesn't need to wait for hours or wait to see the light from the lamp to hit the old man's false eye, before killing him.
2007-10-23 18:11:32 · answer #2 · answered by Anpadh 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, Poe writes the narrator as insane, we would probably call him a paranoid schizophrenic having a psychotic break. The way he keeps hearing the heart so loud is an auditory hallucination.
My memory of his lit and my experience with working with insane people.
2007-10-23 18:15:52 · answer #3 · answered by inzaratha 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I would say the narrator went completely bonkers. It's a thing that often happened with Poe's people... I suppose it happened with Poe himself to a degree. I hope it's not happening to meeeeeee!
2007-10-23 17:58:31 · answer #4 · answered by LK 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There's no right or wrong answer. The teacher wants your opinion, supported by facts from the story. What we think doesn't matter. What you think is what's important.
2007-10-23 17:57:50 · answer #5 · answered by Craig R 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The teacher wants YOUR opinion not OURS. It's opinion, thus there is no right or wrong answer. Get busy and do your own homework.
2007-10-23 18:05:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
he is insane you could tell by how he acts
2007-10-23 17:55:19 · answer #7 · answered by Ono Bolzsitch 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋