Insanity is described as an extreme state of foolishness and irrationality. Although the narrator of Edgar Allen Poe's short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, let's his lack of sound reasoning drive him to murder, he perceives himself to be a cunning and powerful master of fate in his plea to justify his sanity. Poe's narrator seems obsessed with this old man's blind eye. The narrator decides then, that murder would be the best option to exterminate the old man's bothersome eye. " –All a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bonesI made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever" (Poe). He is disconnected with reality and self-absorbed in his plan against the old man. His tragic flaws lead to his ultimate demise and earn him the title of an antihero. .
The speaker in this 19th century gothic fiction lacks any sign of sound reasoning. He is completely detached from reality and has almost no comprehension of the consequences of his actions like most antiheros. Throughout his recounting of how he stalked and murdered the old man in order to get rid of his eye, the narrator clings to his premise that he is indeed sane, despite killing his seemingly innocent neighbor. "And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense?" (Poe). He states that he cared for the old man and that he had never mistreated him. The speaker condescendingly greets his neighbor every morning by asking how had he slept, though knowing very well how the old man had slept soundly through the night from peering at him through his bedroom door. Poe's narrator admits to having no objective or motive behind actions, besides wanting to free himself from the annoyance of having to look at the old man's eye. The narrator attempts to end the reader's speculation of a possible robbery turned murder, by simply saying that taking the old man's riches was neither his intention (Poe).