The Tell Tale Heart Mental Illness

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart is a famous literary piece known for its gothic style and disturbing content. It focuses on the retelling of a murder committed by the narrator who claims that he is not mad. It is apparent as the story wears on, that he is quite the opposite. While reading this narrative, one could draw the conclusion that it presents many aspects of abnormal psychology, as Poe dramatizes the character’s thoughts in a way that exudes his mental instability. This writing displays the mental state of the central character and as well as the repercussions of the terrible act he committed. In the short story, the unnamed character exhibits signs of a psychotic disorder and the effects of a guilty conscience are displayed.
-- nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Poe). Despite what he claims, it could be debated that he is, in fact, quite mad. His frenetic thoughts and actions proved that he was mentally unstable and this could be linked to a psychotic disorder, possibly Psychosis. He repeatedly stated throughout his recitation that he was not delirious and that people mistook his meticulousness for insanity. In an attempt to disprove the notion that he was aberrant, he begins to explain the crime he committed, which, in the end, only proves the point further. It was the eye of an old man (which, upon description, could have been Cataracts) that the character was associated with that led him to commit murder. The eye deeply disturbed him, as he referred to it as the “evil eye” and “vulture eye”. “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees -- very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe). His fear of the old man’s eye was completely irrational, but he described that once the idea to rid himself of the eye was planted in his mind he could not ignore it. He began an unhealthy obsession with the eye and for eight nights he consistently crept into the old man’s house with
Edgar Allan Poe delves into the insanity that is the human mind and gives insight to how mentally disturbed a person can be and how their thought processes might work. He writes this ominous story in a way that allows the reader to readily conclude that the narrator has a psychotic disorder, while leaving a message about the results of a guilty mind. This is what makes Poe one of the most influential writers of horror; his target of style and structure is evident in his works and it creates a unique reading experience. His prowess in writing these psychological thrillers continues to have an impact on not only the literary world, but also the reader’s