E.A. Poe’s Insights On Insanity And The Workings Of The Human Psyche

In pondering the issues above, we often set ourselves aside in thinking that only the obviously and criminally insane are capable of doing such a deed and no seemingly normal person would ever commit such a heinous act, especially not anyone near and dear to us, but what if it were to happen? What if someone close to us were to wish us harm and become aggravated enough to carry out that wish? In forcing us to ask these questions, Poe also focuses on the workings of the human psyche and more specifically on the ability of a seemingly normal person on the brink of sanity to commit insane acts of morbid brutality. Furthermore,

A common theme in “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” is the narrator being a seemingly normal and perfectly sane person to all others when in actuality the case was anything but. From the onset of “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator attempts to convince the readers that he is sane, “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them” (3). Already from the introduction, from the punctuation alone used, the reader is put on their guard about the story that follows and already begins to question the sanity of the narrator. As we read on, the narrator endeavors further to convince the readers of his sanity by “calmly” relaying the whole story. In doing so, he only gives insight as to the absolute depth of his insanity as opposed to convincing one of his sanity. He states that it was a dispassionate crime and that he in fact cared for the victim who had never wronged him. “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had he eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” he states in groping for an outlet upon which the blame could have been placed (3). After re-reading the story I wondered would could it have possibly been about the eye that made the narrator so furious. My conjecture was that to many, the eyes are mirrors to the soul and in the old man’s eye, the narrator saw something reflected in himself that he found distasteful and set out to “rid” himself of it. If it was not obvious prior to this point, I believe it is impossible for any rational ind

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