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Tell Tale Heart Madman Analysis

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Calculated killer or delusional madman? In the story, the “Tell-Tale-Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character (a man) wants to kill an old man because of his blue vulture’s eye, which he assumes is evil. Throughout the story, the murderer denies his madness, saying that is simply because of his “sharpened” senses that he hears things in both heaven and hell. The story takes place in an old man’s room, and, little by little, the main character leads the reader through his calculated scheme to kill the old man and get rid of his eye for good. Based on the evidence presented in the 8th Amendment regarding the Death Penalty, the main character should be sentenced to 20 years of prison and psychiatric treatment, because he did many things a madman would do, like hearing amplified voices and sounds, and because he actually spent time planning the murder of the old man, and it’s not just on the spot …show more content…

As the story progresses, the narrator leads the reader throughout his journey, which ends with him finally killing the man. For this reason, the murderer should be sentenced to psychiatric treatment and twenty years of prison, since he acted exactly like a madman (hearing noises and sounds that didn’t exist), and he actually made a plan to go through with the murder. One of the themes that is consistent throughout this story is the idea of mental illness. The main character shows signs of being mentally ill as he constantly makes it clear that his sole reason for wanting to kill the old man is his eye (as he mentions in the text, he “grew furious as he gazed upon it” (Poe, 1843)). Sometimes paranoia causes you to act in certain ways, making you take rash decisions. However, it is always important to reconsider what you’re doing (at least if you’re in your right mind), or you will regret and repent for them

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