If you have ever been into creepy stories, then you have likely heard of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” This is a well-known short story about a man who was so triggered by an old man’s hideous eye, that he went insane and killed the old man. The narrator in this story can easily be compared to the insanity shown in Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse. In Ten Days in a Madhouse Bly fakes her insanity to be put into an insane asylum to observe what it is like on the inside. Both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Ten Days in a Madhouse may seem drastically different at first glance, but they both show similarities throughout the stories by showing different views on insanity during the 1800’s; this is important due to the fact that it shows readers both a story written for entertainment, and a story written out of seriousness, and allows us to relate them together. 

Edgar Allan Poe’s story of “The Tell-Tale Heart” shows the cruel, twisted, and creepy side of insanity. The story written in 1843 reveals a man who was so unstable in his own mind, he killed a man he found to be a friend, just for having a crazy eye. The murderer did not see anything wrong with what he had done. This is clear when it states “I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done (Poe.)” This was said directly after the old man was murdered. The murderer did not feel guilty about what he had done until his conscious was so heavy that he could hear what he had thought to be the dead man’s heartbeat. According to an article written on the Literature Arts Medicine Database, the murderer in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is “dreadfully nervous” which is said to be a sign in the story that he is mentally insane (Miksanek). This article talks about how it is an obsession of the murderer to go into the man’s room every night, look at his eye, and leave, which is shown clearly throughout Poe’s story. It is clear that he had been planning this murder, with no remorse.

It can be seen fluently that the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is in denial about having a psychological disorder. This can be seen when the narrator states, “but why will you say that I am mad (Poe)?” which shows that he knows others think he is insane, but does not see it himself. The reason this is often stated is because the writer, Poe, is pointing out hints for the readers to understand that he is indeed insane. This can be shown fluently throughout the entire writing, like how the narrator keeps stating he is not mad, and keeps thinking everyone believes he is so. The repetitive notion of this is a clear example that he is indeed mad. This is shown many times, like when he states, “You fancy me mad (Poe).” Also, “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body (Poe).” Insanity in “The Tell-Tale Heart” can easily relate to Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse, which was written in 1887. In Ten Days in a Madhouse, Bly explains her personal experience being in an insane asylum, surrounded by many people who were considered insane during that time, just as the murderer in “The Tell-Tale Heart” appears to be. Ten Days in a Madhouse takes a much more serious tole around insanity during this time, and helps show that it did indeed exist, and was not just used for entertainment like Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” was.

In the second paragraph of “The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator, who later becomes the murderer, states: 

“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 (Poe).”

This statement from the narrator shows that he truly had no significant reason to commit murder on this man he claims to have “loved.” No sane man would kill someone that they loved. This is one of many signs shown within this short story that this man is obviously mentally ill. In Ten Days in a Madhouse, Chapter VIII states “"Insane!" she repeated, incredulously. "It cannot be seen in your face."” (Bly). This shows that many people who appear insane, are not considered insane, and many people who are not insane, are labeled to be so. If they had truly thought that Bly did not look like she belonged in asylum, they would have further investigated her to find out she was indeed mentally stable. But assuming so, many people who came into that “madhouse” had not looked unstable. Comparing these two stories shows that especially during the 1800’s, people who were labeled as “insane,” were likely diagnosed incorrectly, or too easily, and many people still wandered around outside of the insane asylum without ever being considered to have a mental health issue.

The two stories can be seen as completely different views on insanity. With Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” being the extreme end of insanity, with committing murder, and Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse showing the people who are receiving treatment and help, even though the nurses in this writing do not do a good job at helping. When Bly refers to the patients inside the asylum, she never once seems scared of any of them, or as if any are a threat. In chapter eleven it is stated, “Imagine plunging that sick girl into a cold bath when it made me, who have never been ill, shake as if with ague. I heard her explain to Miss Grupe that her head was still sore from her illness (Bly).” Bly had felt bad for most of the patients stuck inside this madhouse. This shows that some of the people who were put into insane asylums during the 1800’s were people who were simply just ill. 

In comparison, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is fiction, and was completely written for entertainment purposes, since Poe often wrote weird and creepy stories. On the other hand, Ten Days in a Madhouse is Bly’s real story about the experience she had inside an insane asylum. Since these two stories are completely different, comparing fiction with non-fiction, it helps the readers further understand the truth behind insanity in this time. One may read Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and find it entertaining, but once you read Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse, you further understand the seriousness behind this issue, and can better understand the mental state that the murderer in “The Tell-Tale Heart” must have been in. Both stories show a good point to the mentally ill during this time, but they show it in different ways that help readers understand the situation in more than one way.

When comparing the insanity shown in “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Ten Days in a Madhouse, one of the first things that comes to mind is that during this time period, the 1800’s, there was no true way to diagnose someone with a mental illness. Doctors could have easily misdiagnosed a patient, and then that patient could be stuck in an insane asylum for the rest of their lives. This is important due to the fact that it becomes clear that “The Tell-Tale Heart” was written in an entertainment purpose, since during this time in history, people could end up in asylums for nearly anything, including being plain lazy. People like the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” could have never been diagnosed with any sort of disorder. In comparison, in 2016, these problems still occur. People are misdiagnosed frequently, and also there are many people out there who have serious mental health disorders and have never been diagnosed with anything. The main difference between 1800’s and now-a-days when it comes to insanity is that we have the technology to help most disorders out in present time, versus sticking someone into an insane asylum for the rest of their existence.

As we view these two stories during 2016, we can see just how things have changed over time when it comes to being mentally insane, especially in comparison to how the insane asylums were portrayed in Ten Days in a Madhouse. This is important due to the fact that the two stories are nearly opposites of each other. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the man was clearly mentally unstable, but was treated as he was an ordinary man. Poe did this to make the story more intense; to create suspense. On the opposite hand, Nellie Bly in Ten Days in a Madhouse was not even mentally ill, but she had gone to the insane asylum during a harsh time when the mentally ill were treated as they were not even humans. This view on insanity shows the truth behind the “mentally unstable” during this time, rather than what we expect the insane to act like.

As both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Ten Days in a Madhouse may seem drastically different at first glance, they both show similarities throughout the stories by showing different views on insanity during the 1800’s. Both of these texts show just how drastic the difference was between different types of mentally unstable people during this time period. From one end of murder, to the other end of a woman shivering in a bathtub because she is sick, both stories help the readers imagine what life could have been like when harsh insane asylums still existed. Overall, both of the two stories show a side of insanity that no reader ever hopes to witness themselves in real life.
