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Originally Posted by hana you asked me if there is adifferene between them insane
in my opinion being mad, i think he is not resposible for what he doing and i dont know if we should blame him or not being criminal, in the full of his sanity, he is responsible he realized what he did. |
First of all, we don't know if the narrator is male (he) or female (she). The author, Poe, doesn't say. He uses "I" through the entire tale. Second, the point is this: Is s/he mad or not? That is, did s/he know what s/he was doing? Even though the narrator "continually stressing to the reader that s/he is not mad, and tries to convince us of that fact by how carefully this brutal crime was planned and executed (
Martha Womack)", we can't really tell for certain if s/he was not mad.
You see, if we look at the reason the narrator killed the old man (i.e. the evil eye, which is a bad omen, something that can cause illness and bad fortune to those it peers upon), we find her/his motive stems from an irrational fear: the fear of the old man's blue eye! The narrator is not afraid of the old man, per se, s/he is afraid of the "eye".
That in itself is somewhat significant. The reason being, and the gist of all of this, the narrator's comment that her/his new found will to kill made her/him feel fantastic, and almost super-human (i.e. he could hear the ticking of a watch). Her/His irrational fear of the old man's eye made her/him behave like a different person, a better person, according to the narrator.
So, was s/he mad? Well, now there's the rub. Of course taking the life of another is a criminal act and the murderer responsible for her/his actions; but, can the murderer be held responsible for a crime committed out of perceived self-defense? That's the true question here. Remember that the narrator murdered the "eye"; the old man was simply the vessel. It even had a
beating heart. The narrator snuck into the old man's room at night to view the "eye", not the old man. Notice that the old man's character is not defined as well as that of the eye's.
In short, irrational fears lead some people to madness, and madness may lead them to committ a crime.
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i read an interpretation by martha the narrator is afraid, and this phobia leads him gradually to madness but in his origin he isnt mad in another site mentioned something about his wife death and being orphan and how affected his life to miserable one
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Just a quick note, my previous post to you was written by Martha Womack, and I found it at the Poe Decoder site). :wink:
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my question is is the narrator in his origin case is normal from the beging you mentioned sth about the dark side of the narrator that evokes evil to kill someone but even if he is criminal he wouldnt act in such away
seven days he watched him then after killing him he dismembered his corps above all he was happy by so doing and congratulated himself
this is upnormal what do you mean when you asked about the difference between criminality and madness ,uptill now i didnt read your opinion
thank you very much for your cooporation
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That's what the author wants us, the readers, to pick up on; that the narrator is meticulous in her/his actions; clear-minded, focused, like a well-tuned executionist. The narrator's irrational fear made her/him do things s/he wouldn't normally do under normal circumstances. The madness
is the narrator's seemingly calm, cool "rational" behavior.
In short, if rationality makes one sane, then what happened to the narrator, because her/his irrational fear made her/him act rationally. That's the rub!
Is the narrator mad?
Even though the narrator carried out the crime in a rational way, for example, s/he stalked her/his victim, murdered without guilt, and it took three days to do it; S/he had no compassion; s/he saw human beings as objects, and it was her/his irrational fear that lead her/him to do it.
So, should the narrator go to jail and pay for her/his crime or should s/he placed in a hospital for the temporarily insane? Can we/Should we convict someone who is (temporarily) mad or are they a victim as well?
In
The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe sets the reader up as judge and jury. You be the judge, expresses Poe.
As a reader, did you feel hatred and disgust for the narrator or did you feel pity and compassion. What is the relationship between madness and criminality? I felt pity and compassion. Is s/he a criminal? Well, I personally feel that s/he is and yet she isn't--which is probably exactly what the author intended would happen. :wink:
All the best, :D
my answer in the exam 
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