The Tell-Tale Heart Schizophrenic Analysis

“Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects the way a person acts, thinks, and sees the world” (“Schizophrenia” 1). People with Schizophrenia perceive the world differently from the way normal people do. The way the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” perceived the world in the story was very similar to how a schizophrenic may see things. This may lead people to believe that he too was schizophrenic. People with this disease suffer from delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and disorganized behavior. Throughout the story, the narrator was repeating many words, and he believed that he could hear the beating of the old man’s heart when in reality, he was just hearing the beating of his own heart. These characteristics have proven to
First off, schizophrenics often suffer from constant hallucinations and mis-interpreted thoughts and sounds that affect the way they view the things around them. People with this disease usually have hallucinations and sensations that appear to be real. Hallucinations are characterized as “sounds or other sensations experienced as real when they exist only in the person’s mind” (“Schizophrenia” 2). It is clear that many schizophrenics cannot distinctly tell the difference between hallucinations and reality, this factor may greatly affect the way a person thinks acts and speaks. Many schizophrenics have what is called “auditory hallucinations [that] occur when people misinterpret their own inner self-talk as coming from an outside source” (“Schizophrenia” 2). Schizophrenics tend to believe their own inner thoughts or sounds are coming from a person or thing other than themselves. This is why the disease makes people end up talking to themselves constantly or misunderstanding another person's words. Similarly, the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” had many of the same symptoms exhibited in the article. While the narrator was going to kill the old