Justifications of Sanity

        Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" takes the reader into the mind and justifications of a mentally ill person. The interesting thing is that the unnamed narrator refuses to admit that he is crazy. He would say stuff such as, "How, then, am I mad?" (226) and "Madmen know nothing" (226). These phrases clearly indicate that the narrator believes there is nothing wrong with his actions; more specifically his murder. The two primary justifications for the narrator are the aforementioned thought process of the narrator as well as the manner with which the story is told.
       The clearest reason that the author tries to have the narrator prove to us he is sane is with the thought process. The narrator spends the entire story contrasting his actions from those of a madman. He incessantly uses rhetorical questions throughout the story to compare himself to a madman and show how they can't possibly be related. He uses blatant phrases such as, "would a madman have been so wise as this?" (227) and later "And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-actueness of the senses?" (228). This direct look into the authors mindset is very direct. He is very open and clearly opinionated on whether he is crazy or not. The tone of the story remains optimistic and eager to prove innocence. Towards the end it seems as though the narrator because to break down and show us signs of insanity. I bought into this change of tone until I realized how the entire story is told in the past tense.
       The tense of the story is of the utmost importance. As mentioned before, the tone of the story seems to take a shift and it almost seems as if he is about to admit to craziness. We can't forget that he is telling us this story after the fact. The event has already transpired and yet he is still recalling it as if it is not a big deal. Perhaps if the story was in the present tense then we would find the character admitting to insanity. The fact that it is in past tense means he must have come to terms with the event. He says, "--nervous-- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" (226). I can imagine this person going around and sharing his story as if it was no big deal. The narrator is still justifying his sanity by saying how he was only nervous; not insane. This could be days, weeks, or years from when the murder actually occurred. We really have no way of telling because the narrator disguises the time frame so well. Both the use of the diction, tone, as well as the past tense combine to make the narrator sound like he has fully convinced himself that he is not mad.