Tell-Tale Heart Argumentative Essay

“Why will you say that I am mad?” In the short story, “Tell-Tale Heart” Edgar Allan Poe describes a man who murdered an old man. The main character describes himself as an acute killer who is not mad even though he has a disease. He claims that the reason why he murdered the old man was because of his “eye like a vulture”. The main character takes serious precaution and dissimulation. After what precedent, he went to the old man’s house everyday for a week just as midnight. Specifically how precisely he undid the lantern and let a dim of light on the old man’s eye. Based on the evidence presented in the 8th Amendment of the Death Penalty the main character should be sentenced to twenty years in prison with release to psychiatric hospital,

He threw the bed on top him and suffocated him. This shows that he felt pride and he smiled gaily, to see the old man dead. “ The time had come! I rushed into the room, crying, “Die! Die!” The old man gave a loud cry of fear as I fell upon him and held the bedcovers tightly over his head.” (Poe 1843). According to the evidence the narrator murdered and used voluntary manslaughter to kill the old man. Another instance that determines why the narrator should get the death penalty is, “Every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it--- oh so gently!... It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed… And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously--- I undid it just so much that single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And I did it for seven long nights-- every night just as midnight --but I always found the eye closed,” (Poe, 1843). This is compelling because the main character committed first-degree murder. He planned the whole murdered, he went to his house everyday for a week at night and he was trying to look at the eye so he can kill him. To make the old man less suspicious he was super nice to

The narrator states, “The disease has sharpened my senses not destroy them… I have heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I have heard many things in.” (Poe, 1843). This quotes explains that he was ill and cannot be able to get the death penalty. To explain how he was mentally ill, the main character states, “I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head aches, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distant; I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but still it continued and gained definiteness--until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears. No doubt I now grew very pale;---- but I talked more fluently , and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased-- and what could I do… I gasped for breath--- and yet the officers heard it not.” (Poe, 1843). This explains that the main character is hearing noises and is ill. This is compelling because according to the court system 5% of criminals due have a mental illness. If you do have mental then you are not cognitively able to make clear decision. That means, the narrator can get the death penalty, even though he does not deserve