Poe’s Interpretation of Insanity in the Tell-Tale Heart

Edgar Allan Poe once said, “I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity,” but what exactly are sanity and insanity? Insanity is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “the state of being mentally ill; madness; extreme foolishness or irrationality,” and sanity as “the ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner: sound mental health.” Edgar Allan Poe, though he never outwardly stated it, has his own interpretation on this matter. His interpretations can be observed in the stories he wrote.

Yes, Poe views insanity as a psychological issue more than he does as a moral issue, and when disguised as sanity it is most dangerous. It is a burden that eventually leads to a complete psychological collapse.

An interpretation I will be examining in the following essay will be that which is seen in one of his most famous stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” When this story is placed under the microscope, he almost appears to be applauding insanity. Yet, when Poe examines the public court cases, he almost seems repulsed by the mere idea of the whole debate. In this essay, I will narrow down Poe’s views and interpretations of insanity. Poe seems to have given the subject extensive thought through his many short stories and his significant contribution to the insanity debate. I aim to examine what it is like, what it is, what causes it, and what it meant to him and to each of his characters. He illustrates his characters’ insanity through obsession and murder, but who better to understand the minds of the insane than the insane themselves?

Insanity and mental stability, contrary to common misconception, do not go hand in hand. Mental stability is determined by observing how well an individual can handle their cognitive and emotional capabilities in order to properly function in society (Mayo Clinic 1). Problems in this field can result in mental illnesses, which differ greatly from insanity on the basis that they are accompanied by disorderly thoughts, and impaired morals and judgement. It is not considered as serious as insanity, and is therefore practically overlooked by the courts in a criminal case. In other words, those afflicted with mental illness can, in fact, be held accountable for their actions, while those who plead insanity cannot. This is because, in my opinion, true mental stability cannot be reached. It is a paradox that promotes “normal” where said “normal” does not exist, but one could strive to reach an internal peace with themselves. Only on that level would one become close to a perfect “mental stability.” It is my belief that Poe would agree with this statement based on a particular court case titled “The Trial of James Wood.” The trial is one revolving around a man who murdered his daughter, having a claim of insanity that Poe easily debunked due to his claims of, “a premeditated and cold-blooded assassination” (Wall 132).

The reasoning behind this claim is that James Wood was seen “purchasing his pistols from the gunsmith” and could be characterized “by an entire self-possession – a remarkable calmness and evenness of manner altogether foreign to his usual nervous habit” (Wall 132). Poe made it a point to observe that many would fear arguing this because the calmness James Wood displayed would have suggested a hidden insanity. Still, his “nervous trepidancy would have manifested itself, thus perfectly shielding how unstable the man actually was” (Wall 132). He was to be held accountable for his actions because of the premeditation, because of his cool exterior, and because of how aware of his apparent insanity — which in all actuality was false — he was. The insanity plea was becoming increasingly common around this time, and many believe that Poe had a direct or indirect influence on the increased use of the insanity defense in public courts. “The Trial of James Wood, coincidentally or not, happened around the time that Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” was published in the Pioneer Magazine in 1843. It presented a fairly thorough synopsis of the main legal, medical, and philosophical issues underlying the insanity defense in both ‘The Tell-Tale heart’ and the trial. They also reflected the terms of the controversy surrounding its increased use” (Cleman 627). Another detail supporting the idea that Poe played a hand in the increased use of the insanity pleas can be observed in the stories that arose around the time Poe released his own story.

Edgar Allan Poe presents a gothic, even morbid side to the human consciousness to life in his stories, likewise with other authors such as Mark Twain. The two in specific seem to share “a deep and abiding sense of guilt that flows from human obsession” and a common ground in which “characters… respond to the tortures of conscience,” described as a burden, “how they ultimately choose the victims of their demonic quest for vengeance, and whether they ultimately become a victim of their quest” (Kiskis 20, 22). The characters these acclaimed authors introduce (Twain in “Hadleyburg” and Poe in virtually any of his stories) are mentally frail, driven by a guilt-induced motivation for retribution. Even still, there is no intent to excuse their actions, but there is intent to create a form of understanding.

As we can observe in the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart, the insane do not know they are insane. The narrator’s refusal to invoke the insanity defense grants him ironic power in determining his destination for punishment, in opposition to the ordinary course of the justice system” (Wall 1:30). This exposes “the gap between the culpability-negating legal definition of insanity and actual mental illness” (Wall 130). This particular narrator’s insanity begins and ends with obsession. An often distorted obsession is time itself. Poe mentions how many days it took the murder to take place, but not the month in which it happened. The narrator also counts the old man’s — the man he murdered — heartbeats. Could this possibly be related to time? The second obsession is the eye that prompted the murder, an act that took root in instability because of the way he attempted to shield his insanity not only from the world, but from himself as well. The “veil” over the man’s eye can symbolize the narrator’s complications in finding a way to properly view the world around him. Everything is obscured and frustrating to the narrator, driving him to obsession and insanity. In the end, guilt may also have played a part in his confession to the police.

The heartbeat seemed to grow louder as time slowly passed, and because the narrator was already past the edge of obsession, guilt pushed him into the realm of insanity. Poe’s tales evidently have more than one meaning. “Perversity, madness, and death, obsessive paranoia, ironic self-delusion, and psychological suicide have all been noted in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and have been labeled as a drama of mental breakdown…” (Pitcher 231). It is even suggested that the “perversity, or that ‘eye’ is a pun on ‘I’,” leading to the implication that the victim and the narrator are one and the same (Pitcher 231). Likewise, the dismemberment of the old man can be viewed as a complete breakdown — mental, moral, and spiritual — of the narrator. The arrival of the three policemen “foreshadows the downfall of the narrator and leads directly to the renewed beating of the heart beneath the floorboard” (Pitcher 231). Leading to his confession, the public order (the police) stimulated the moral sense (the heart). In the end, the narrator almost seems to applaud himself for committing these crimes, all while claiming that they were committed with a light heart and utmost control.

It was briefly discussed that an individual can claim insanity at any given point in time, as seen in “The Trials of James Wood” and many more trials to come. Poe has fought hard against promoting insanity, and I believe that his stories are meant to highlight the actual definition of insanity and how it can affect the mortal mind. The purpose of this paper was not just to define insanity as it is, but to define insanity through the eyes of Edgar Allan Poe and his characters in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” It has been deduced that mental stability is not in place: the “evil eye” with the “well” covering it. This eye appears to hold a magical capability, and even though it is “dull and unseeing,” it “chilled the very marrow in his bones.” The third obsession is the one that was stated in the very opening sentence: “True, – nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” The unknown narrator is desperately trying to convince the reader that he is not insane, when clearly his actions prove otherwise. This is to be classified as insanity, and not something equivalent to insanity, and the controversy surrounding the idea can be viewed as early as the mid-eighteen-hundreds.

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