Question

From "The Tell Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe

TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had 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. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. 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.


What might the reader conclude about the narrator of this story from these opening paragraphs?
A) The narrator feels great remorse for his actions.
B) The narrator's claims of sanity seem to be a case of him"protesting too much."
C) The narrator has great spiritual insight, but doesn't wish to share it with the reader.
D) The narrator clearly isn't crazy, because he seemingly had good reason to do what he did.
Eli

Answer 1

The narrator in Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' claims sanity, yet exhibits irrational and obsessive behavior, suggesting a potential lack of stability.

Step-by-step explanation:

From the opening paragraphs of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," the reader can conclude several things about the narrator. The narrator adamantly insists on his sanity, despite exhibiting signs that suggest otherwise. He becomes obsessively fixated on the old man's eye, which he describes with aversion, ultimately leading him to commit murder with seemingly no rational motive other than to rid himself of the eye itself. This obsessive behavior, coupled with his hyper-awareness and heightened senses that he claims allow him to hear things in heaven, earth, and hell, give the impression that he may indeed be unstable.

Answer 2

B. The narrator's claim of sanity seem to be a case of him " protesting too much."

He obviously makes himslelf to seem insane because he has irrational reasoning.