Character Analysis: The Tell-Tale Heart

Once I finished reading the Tell Tale Heart, I was almost positive that the main character had lost his mind completely. Throughout the story, the narrator desperately tries to convince readers that he is not insane, but drops little hints throughout the story that he has a mental illness, it is possible to see that he may have schizophrenia. The Tell-Tale Heart is about a man who decides to murder an old man to get rid of his pale blue eye. Throughout the story, he believes that the eye is a danger to him. It is narrated by the killer, who tells why he decided to do commit the murder, how he did it and how he ended up confessing. The narrator does not worry about getting caught for the murder, he wants to show readers that he is sane and that he had a reason to kill the old man. However, it is kind of impossible to see this as a normal action from a healthy mind. We diagnosed the narrator with Schizophrenia. He presents three main behaviors that can be considered symptoms of schizophrenia. One of them is the delusion he has during the story. He shows signs of having referential delusions. Referential delusions are a state of mind where a person believes that certain gestures of actions are specifically directed at him or her. This is seen when he is talking to the policemen in his house after he has killed and hid the old
Catatonic behavior can be extreme oaeaelysis of the muscles in your body or it can also be hyperactive conduct and the narrator shows both of the symptoms. When he first shows one of theses is when he getting ready to kill the old man and he says “I kept still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle”. Another time when he shows that he has catatonic behavior is at the end of the story when he was talking to the policemen. He says “I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides. I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the