Tell Tale Heart Nervousness

Madness is a State of Mind The mind can be a fertile ground on which the seeds of thoughts are cultivated; the seeds become plants, and the plants, become trees that bear fruits that can be detrimental to one’s mental health. The first-person point of view leads the reader into the narrator’s seemingly deranged mind; whose behavior and thoughts would eventually culminate into actions that are evident of a person suffering from mental illness, which can be attributed to paranoia. A person who experiences irrational fear and delusion has the potential to inflict hurt to himself as well as others. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is told from the perspective of the narrator who gives a personal account of a situation fueled by anxiety,
irrational fear, and delusion. Often times, individuals with mental illness will display anxiety (nervousness) during the process of contemplating and carrying out an inhumane task.
Nervousness is a defining characteristic of such an individual. In the case of the narrator, he claimed that he was nervous prior to, and after he carried out his evil deed. This is made obvious in his opening statement: “True! - Nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am…” (Poe, 41). Nervousness is again exhibited when the murderer enters the bedchamber of the old man on the eight consecutive night. Upon stealthily entering the old man’s bedchamber, he happens to startle the old man who awakes in terror. He deliberately shines the light on the “eye” and nervousness seeps in again because now he believes he can hear the crescendo of the old man’s heartbeat, when in fact he was hearing his own. “I have told you that I am nervous: so I am.” As the sound of the heartbeat permeates the bedchamber so audibly to the narrator, his will to get rid of the eye once and for all climaxed. “And now a new anxiety seized me – the sound will be heard by a neighbor.” This exemplifies that anxiety does not prevent one from following through with the extremes of carrying out a divisive scheme of atrocity; in most cases, it usually causes it to heighten. The narrator had strategically planned and eventually followed through with his evil deed despite his
anxiety. Fear can be the driving force behind any inhumane act.
The narrator speaks of the fear he has of the old man’s eye. He refers to it as the “Evil Eye” because “it resembles that of a vulture – a pale blue eye with a film over it.” The fear the narrator feels when the “eye” looks on him, made his blood run cold.” This comparison could be credited to the characteristics of a vulture being a bird of prey with a very keen eyesight. He uses repetition to emphasize the claim that whenever he sees the eye, his blood would get colder and colder. This is affirmed by the following statement, “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees – very gradually (Poe, 41).” Despite his love for the old man who have never wronged him, the eye has to go, if it means taking the old man’s
life.
The narrator is clearly delusional because he speaks of hearing the heartbeat of the dead, mutilated old man, whose body now lies in pieces under the floor board. In his efforts to convince the readers that he is sane, he gives vivid details with precision and clarity of his thoughts and actions throughout the story. He takes the reader in a step by step process of the entire ordeal, including his very thoughts and inner voice. The narrator exclaims that “The disease has sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.” He seemingly gives the implication that he has a mental disorder when he refers to the ‘disease.’ This can be attributed to schizophrenia, whose symptoms include delusion and hallucination (American Psychiatric Association (APA)). Yet, throughout the story, he tries to convince the reader that he is not mad; that he is very intelligent to be able to plan and successfully follow through with a crime. One may ask, “How can a man of his caliber be insane?” As a matter of fact, he is asking the same question. The manifestation of his delusional psyche came about during his adamancy of being a sane. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me how wisely I proceeded – with what caution – with what foresight – with what dissimulation I went to work!” he was convince that he had gotten away with murder but his conscience got the better of him causing him to reveal to the policemen that he committed the murder of the old man. He went from a state of confidence thinking how clever he was for committing and getting away with murder, to a state of apprehension. His inner voice gradually went from a whisper to a shout and he could bear the noise no longer. “Villains!” “Dissemble no more! I admit the deed – tear up the planks! Here, here – it is the beating of his hideous heart!”
As seen from the narrator’s viewpoint, mental illness of any stage and type can adversely affect a person’s mood, thought process, and behavior in a negative manner. In attempts to convince another that one is not insane, that person will go to the extreme to strategically plan and carry out an act, which in their opinion, is deemed justifiable. The narrator adamantly insists that he is not mad, and tries to convince the reader of such. On the contrary, all his actions lead the reader to believe that he is in fact a mad man---mad enough to take the life of an innocent man all because he was offended by a very small body part – the “Eye.”