Transilvania University of Braşov

Faculty of Letters

Department of Romanian-English

INSANITY IN EDGAR ALLAN POE`S THE

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER AND THE
TELL-TALE HEART

BRAŞOV
2014

Supervisor: Senior Lecturer Oana-Andreea PÎRNUŢĂ, PhD Student: Luciana LIA-SIMA

 Sentence Outline

I. Introduction
This paper discusses the concept of insanity as it is depicted in two of Edgar Allan Poe’s
short stories: “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. A number of Poe’s
characters bring into their discussions the concept of madness and its relativity, trying to convince
the reader of their sanity, but managing to do exactly the opposite. Edgar Allan Poe thought and
wrote a lot about insanity, focusing especially on the relativity of sanity and madness.

II. Body Content

2. Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor and literary critic famous especially for his
eccentric short-stories. Born on January 19, 1809, Poe remained orphan at an early age. He died at
the age of forty, in mysterious circumstances. Poe experienced many losses in his life as all the
people that he loved died or abandoned him. Dr. Kay R. Jamison makes, in her book, “Touched with
Fire: Manic-depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament”, an analysis of Poe’s letters, trying to
demonstrate that the American writer suffered from bipolar disorder.
3. “The Fall of the House of Usher”, published in 1839, is the most popular short-story written
by Poe and deals, among others, with the theme of madness. Speaking about the nature of his
disease, Roderick confesses that he suffers from a morbid acuteness of the senses.
4. ”The Tell-Tale Heart”, published in 1843, presents itself as “the monologue of a murderer”.
What we call madness, the narrator calls “over acuteness of the senses”. He claims that he suffers
from hypersensitivity of the senses, especially of the hearing, which is known to be one of the
effects of opium abuse.

III. Conclusion
In conclusion, insanity proves to be one of Poe’s favourite topics for his short stories.
Encountered in most of his works, the relativity of sanity and madness is the main theme in “The
Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.
 Abstract

The present academic paper analyzes the concept of insanity as it is described in

two famous stories written by Edgar Allan Poe: “The Fall of the House of
Usher” and “The Tell-Tale House”. It also discusses the possibility that Poe had
suffered from manic-depressive disorder. Furthermore, it focuses on the relativity
of sanity and madness as it is inferred from the character’s behaviour and
speech. Both Roderick Usher and the narrator from “The Tell-Tale Heart” name
their condition “an over acuteness of the senses”.

Key Words: Madness, sanity, Roderick Usher, narrator, relativity

 1. INTRODUCTION
This paper discusses the theme of insanity as it is depicted in two of Edgar Allan Poe’s short
stories: “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.

“The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe’s most famous short story, is one of the best examples
of gothic fiction, as it speaks of a house, which can easily be seen as a haunted castle, and its
inhabitants, which are tormented characters haunted by illnesses, fears and madness.

“Many critics believe this tale reveals the most about Poe’s life—from one critic’s assertion that
the description of Roderick Usher is «the most perfect pen-portrait of Poe which is known» to
another’s suggestion that references to «the morbid condition of the auditory nerve» and the shifting
visual imagery in the mansion unmistakably reflect a familiarity with the effects of opium.” (Sova,
2007:77)
Actually, in this story the theme seems to be not the disease, or the addiction, but the insanity of
the characters. Usher is definitely a deranged man, as he chooses to bury his sister alive. Speaking
about his sickness, he admits that it does not surprise him, because of his family’s history of illness.
But Roderick Usher is not the only one that can be suspected of being insane. The narrator himself has
a strange behaviour and speaks in a peculiar way.

A number of Poe’s characters bring into their discussions the concept of madness and its
relativity, trying to convince the reader of their sanity, but managing to do exactly the opposite. This is
also the case of our second story’s narrator. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator, which is clearly and
undoubtedly insane, puts a lot of effort into trying to demonstrate his sanity.

Edgar Allan Poe thought and wrote a lot about insanity, focusing especially on the relativity of
sanity and madness. The famous line from “Eleonora”: “Men have called me mad; but the question is
not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence…” underlines this theme. Many of
Poe’s short stories deal with this issue. The characters often speak about their presupposed insanity,
asking themselves and the reader if their actions can or cannot be seen as the actions of a madman, and
if madness, is not, in fact, “over-acuteness of the senses”?
 2. Edgar Allan Poe, a “mad genius”?

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor and literary critic famous especially for his
eccentric short-stories. He is the father of the modern detective story and a mastermind of gothic
fiction. His life seems to have been just as eccentric as his prose, being a mixture of suffering,
deceptions, poverty, alcohol, drugs, gambling and literature.

Born on January 19, 1809, Poe remained orphan at an early age. His father abandoned his
family and shortly after this event, his mother died of tuberculosis. The three Poe brothers were
separated and thus Edgar was adopted by a wealthy couple from Richmond, John and Frances
Allan.

Throughout his years in school, Poe struggled with poverty and had many heated arguments
with his foster father. Longing for a better life, he began writing and managed to publish in 1827, at
the age of 18, but the book was given no attention. He worked several years for literary journals,
gradually becoming known as a fearless critic. In 1835, he married his cousin Virginia Clemm, who
was not yet fourteen. This was a happy marriage, but she died of tuberculosis in the winter of 1847,
two years after the publication of Poe`s most famous poem,” The Raven”, leaving him with a
broken heart.

In 1849, at the age of forty, Poe died in mysterious circumstances. He disappeared for five
days and was found in a bar room and sent to the hospital where he died few days later, not being
capable of explaining what had happened to him.

Poe experienced many losses in his life as all the people that he loved died or abandoned
him, thus leaving him alone and depressed. His condition was aggravated by his addiction to
alcohol and drugs, and he confessed in his letters that he struggled with suicidal thoughts. But no
one can say, for sure, if he was mad. He was, however, obsessed with this theme, and many of his
stories depict insane characters and the conflict between interior madness and the appearance of
sanity.

Dr. Kay R. Jamison, a John Hopkins medical psychologist, makes, in her book, “Touched
with Fire: Manic-depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament”, an analysis of Poe’s letters,
trying to demonstrate that the American writer suffered from what is nowadays called a bipolar
disorder. “Inordinately sensitive to his moods, Poe was also aware of their cyclic and alternating
nature. In a letter to poet James Russell Lowell, whose own temperament was deeply moody, he
wrote: «I can feel for the constitutional indolence of which you complain- for it is one of my own
besetting sins. I am excessively slothful, and wonderfully industrious - by fits. There are epochs
when any kind of mental exercise is torture, and when nothing yields me pleasure but solitary
communion with the mountains and the woods - the altars of Byron. I have thus rambled and
dreamed away whole months, and awake, at last, to a sort of mania for composition. Then I scribble
all day, and read all night, so long as the disease endures. »” (Jamison, 1993: 37)

She also tried to explain Poe’s addiction to alcohol as a consequence of his manic-depressive
illness, stating that:”Studies are quite consistent in finding elevated rates of alcohol and drug abuse in
individuals with manic-depressive illness.“(Jamison, 1993: 37)

Bipolar disorder, which causes rapid and abnormal changes in mood, from thoughts of suicide
to exuberance, is linked by some psychologists with the concept of creativity. This statement is
supported by the fact that many writers, musicians, painters, artists in general have suffered from
manic-depressive illness. Dr. Jamison shares this opinion and argues in her book that this condition
causes not only suffering, but it is also a source of inspiration, a fuel for the creative process.
 3. The Fall of the House of Usher

“The Fall of the House of Usher”, published in 1839, is the most popular short-story written
by Poe and deals, among others, with the theme of madness.

An unnamed narrator receives a letter from his childhood friend, Roderick Usher, in which
he “spoke of acute bodily illness—of a mental disorder which oppressed him”, and decides to visit
him in order to cheer him up and help him deal with his problem. Once arrived at his destination,
the narrator is captivated by the house of his friend and its surroundings. ”Critics agree that Poe
uses setting, symbolism, and imagery to explore themes of evil, madness, and insanity.” (Sova,
2007:78) This “mansion of gloom” anticipates the tragic events that are about to happen.

We find out that Usher comes from an old family that has been known for its “peculiar
sensibility of temperament”, so Roderick’s condition did not surprise the narrator at the beginning
of the story. However, their first encounter brings into his mind the image of an alcoholic or that of
an opium addict.

Speaking about the nature of his disease, Roderick confesses that he suffers from “a morbid
acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of
certain texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light;
and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him
with horror.” (Poe, 2006:131)

At this point, we find out that the narrator’s childhood friend has a sister, Madeline, who also
suffers from a strange disease, experiencing cataleptic trances. The imminent death of his sister seems
to be the reason of Roderick condition. The unnamed narrator, feeling compassion for his friend,
decides to spend as much time as necessary trying to help him cope with the situation. In order to do
so, they take refuge into art:” We painted and read together; or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild
improvisations of his speaking guitar.” (Poe, 2006:132)

One day, Roderick informs his friend of his sister’s death and asks him to help him bury her in
the family crypt. From this point on, the line that delimitated sanity from madness becomes
transparent.” And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an observable change came over the
features of the mental disorder of my friend. His ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary occupa-
tions were neglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and
objectless step.” (Poe, 2006:138) Usher’s condition infects the narrator as well. He starts to feel as if
he is going insane, suffers from insomnia and severe anxiety and has the feeling that something terrible
is about to happen.

One stormy night, Roderick enters his friend’s room acting even more strangely, “a sickly smile
quivered about his lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur, as if uncon-
scious of my presence.” (Poe, 2006:142) The narrator thinks that the storm is the cause of his friend’s
state and tries to read him something in order to calm him down. But, as he reads a mediaeval
romance, strange noises are heard and Roderick begins to speak, confessing that he had buried his
sister alive: “Long—long— long—many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it—yet I
dared not—oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!—I dared not—I dared not speak! We have put her
living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble
movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them—many, many days ago—yet I dared not—I dared not
speak!” (Poe, 2006:143) A terrifying apparition of a “not-dead” Madeline enters the room only to fall
in Roderick’s arms and die again. “Madeline’s avenging return results in the deaths of the Usher twins,
Roderick indeed dying from very fear of fear itself”(Sova, 2007:90).

What seemed to be just an acuteness of the senses aggravated by the loss of someone dear
turns out to be pure madness. Roderick was aware of the fact that his sister was not indeed dead and
still decided to bury her. The story ends with the terrified narrator running out of the collapsing house.
He lives to tell the story, but the way in which he chooses to do that lets us, the readers, with a handful
of unanswered questions. It was something supernatural, or it was, indeed, madness? The narrator, just
like most of Poe’s first-person narrators, is unreliable, even irrational at times. Considering the events
that he had witnessed, we should ask ourselves if he is truly sane, or the story he told us is just some
projection of a deranged mind.
 4.The Tell-Tale Heart
”The Tell-Tale Heart”, published in 1843, presents itself as “the monologue of a murderer”
(Sova, 2007:182) and begins with what seems to be a justification that the narrator gives for his
crime. He addresses the reader directly and states clearly that he is not mad, but suffers from “an
acuteness of senses”, especially of the hearing, much like in the case of Roderick Usher:”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?”(Poe, 2006:187)

In this story, the narrator knows that his crime has no solid justification in the eyes of the sane
people. He even states: “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me
insult. For his gold I had no desire” (Poe, 2006:187), thus eliminating any cause that might have
determined him to murder. Nevertheless, he decides, with a lucidity that borders upon insanity, to
kill the man that he was suppose to look after. The reason? The old man’s eye. “One of his eyes re-
sembled that 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.” (Poe, 2006:187)

Next, the narrator describes, with minute details, his plan. He seems to enjoy his nocturnal
ritual and has the patience to wait seven nights for the right moment to kill, his mind resembling
that of the beast that follows its pray. After killing the old man, he dismembers the body and hides it
under the floor. His actions are calculated and precise, not at all confused, as one would expect the
actions of a madman to be. Even when the police arrive at the old man’s house, his behaviour does
not betray his deed. However, at one point, he begins to lose his control as he has the impression
that the old man’s heart started beating from under the floor. The sound is so loud in his mind and
the pressure so high, that he loses his temper and confesses, even though the police never suspected
anything.

“The Tell-Tale Heart is both a horror story and a psychological portrait of the guilty narrator.
Told from the first-person point of view, the story allows the reader to see into the mind of the madman
who commits so heinous a crime. The reader, thus, sees what the narrator sees and thinks.” (Sova,
2007:182) Letting the reader take a glimpse at his bare thoughts, the narrator tries to convince him not
of his innocence, but mostly of his sanity. But his efforts have the opposite effect, as the reader’s
sureness about the insanity of the narrator increases with every line of the story. Proving that he is
calculated and methodical in his plan to kill the old man, the narrator does nothing else but to prove his
lack of sanity. “Setting out to prove his sanity, this narrator, well before his story ends, convinces us
that he is indeed mad.” (Hayes, 2004:87)

What we call madness, the narrator calls “over acuteness of the senses”. He claims that he suffers
from hypersensitivity of the senses, especially of the hearing, which is known to be one of the effects
of opium abuse. Ironically enough, this is the reason why he collapses in the end of the story. He has
the feeling that he can hear the dead man’s heart beating from under the floor and confesses his crime.
“Yet the sound increased—and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound—much such a sound
as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. […] It grew louder— louder—louder! […] I felt that I
must scream or die!—and now—again!—hark! louder! louder! louder! Louder! […] “Villains!” I
shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!— tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating
of his hideous heart!”(Poe, 2006:191)

“The reader can conclude, though, that the beating of the heart was not that of the old man, but
the narrator’s, who became restless at almost getting away with the crime. Again, the fact that the
narrator cannot decipher his own heart beat from that of the dead man’s, can help the reader assume
that the narrator is indeed, insane.” (http://ayjw.org/articles.php?id=674040) Another explanation
might be that what he hears is his own heart, filled with guilt, beating at the thought of the illegitimate
crime.

“Critics have described this tale as the ultimate gothic story, for its mood and its narrator, who is
trapped in an old, dark house without the prospect of escape.” (Sova, 2007:182) But he is trapped not
only in the house, but also in his own dark and twisted mind, as all madmen are.
 5.CONCLUSION

In conclusion, insanity proves to be one of Poe’s favourite topics for his short stories.

Encountered in most of his works, the relativity of sanity and madness is the main theme in
“The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Here, “Outward actions often display the
inward workings of a mind. No “normal” person would consider burying a sister alive or killing an
older man because of an evil eye to be rational things to do. These actions show that characters that
go to such extremes are not psychologically stable. While a person may think about committing evil,
only one possessed with no reason would actually go through with an outrageous
wrongdoing. Therefore, Poe’s characters let their emotions rule them and do not think logically about
what they are doing, possibly because they cannot do so.” (http://ayjw.org/articles.php?id=674040)

Both Roderick Usher and the narrator from “The Tell-Tale Heart” speak about their condition,
calling it not madness or insanity, but rather “over-acuteness of the senses”. In the field of psychology,
this hypersensitivity is related to a number of mental disorders, including depression, borderline
personality disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Thus, it is certainly not a coincidence that
both characters suffer from extreme sensitivity of the senses, this being just another feature of their
sick selfhood.
Bibliography

1. Hayes, Kevin J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2004

2. Jamison, Kay Redfield. Touched with Fire: Manic-depressive Illness and the Artistic
Temperament. New York: Macmillan, Inc., 1993

3. Gerald, Kennedy J. The Portable Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Penguin Books, 2006

4. Sova, Dawn B. Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. A Literary Reference to his Life and Work.
New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2007

5. http://ayjw.org/articles.php?id=674040