The narrator in 'The Tell-Tale Heart' is in control of his faculties and reliable.

The narrator in 'The Tell-Tale Heart' is in control of his faculties and reliable.

Edgar Alan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is a classic short story that has been read and talked about by tens of thousands. It’s a chilling tale narrated by an unnamed protagonist who tries to convince the reader of his sanity, de

Edgar Alan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is a classic short story that has been read and talked about by tens of thousands. It’s a chilling tale narrated by an unnamed protagonist who tries to convince the reader of his sanity, despite what appears to be his disturbed state of mind. The narrator kills his house mate, claiming he did so because of an intense aversion to the elderly man's pale blue eye. The narrator claims that he believed the eye to be malevolent, and this is the reason he plotted the old man's murder, claiming that it was the only way to rid himself of the eye's unsettling presence. For seven nights, the narrator stealthily observed the old man, planning the murder with meticulous precision. On the eighth night, his agitation reached a climax, and he executed his plan. He swiftly suffocated the old man, dismembered the body, and concealed the remains beneath the floorboards. The murder seemed successful, but the narrator claims that he can hear the old man's heart beating beneath the floorboards, growing louder as time passes. His supposed paranoia becomes intensely palpable. Finally his increasing hysteria culminates in a confession to the police, revealing his guilt. All the while he believes that he hears the heart growing louder and louder.

The story's relentless tension and suspense are amplified by the question of the narrator's reliability. Is he really mad, or is it a ruse to avoid punishment? Readers must grapple with the blurred lines between reality and delusion. Poe's skillful use of first-person narration and vivid descriptions create an atmosphere of psychological horror that lingers long after the tale has concluded.

The question before us today concerning the reliability of the narrator has been asked and answered thousands of times in thousands of classrooms.

Is the narrator insane, or is he feigning madness to escape punishment for his crime?

For the purposes of today’s trial, I will take the position that the narrator has been pretending to be mad, pretending to be driven so by the 'pale blue eye.' I contend that he has killed the old man out of some other reason: his claim to have 'loved the old man' rings false. Perhaps the narrator is lying about not killing him for money or gold. Or perhaps the narrator is a dangerous psychopath who enjoys killing, and is trying to avoid punishment for his crime by feigning madness.

In my verdict answers, I will make my case by providing quotes from the text.

I put forth the following proposition:

The narrator in 'The Tell-Tale Heart' is in control of his faculties and reliable.

Please read the entire short story at the URL given below, and illustrate your verdicts with specific examples from the text.