Edgar Allan was legally insane on February 2, 2017 from midnight to 1:00 A.M., the date of the gruesome murder of John Poe by Edgar Allan, who overtly confessed to the murder.  I acknowledge that although he was in control of himself near the time of the murder, his actions labels him legally insane because he could not tell right from wrong, he could not control his behavior, and he could not distinguish fantasy from reality at the time of the murder.

Edgar Allan could not distinguish fantasy from reality because Mr. Allan believed the illusion that Mr. Poe’s eye had vexed him, which is a fantasy because an eye cannot “vex” someone. Edgar Allan also could not distinguish fantasy from reality because Mr. Allan believed that could hear Mr. Poe’s heartbeat, which is scientifically impossible because nobody can hear another person’s heartbeat. A final reason Edgar Allan could not distinguish fantasy from reality is that Mr. Allan believed he had heard things from heaven and hell, which is a fantasy since he is not in heaven, nor hell, so he couldn’t haven’t heard things from both “places”.

Edgar Allan could not tell right from wrong because Mr. Allan thought that killing a man was the right thing to do to get rid of his phobia of the eye. This is the drastic idea and absurd, because there are many alternative ways you can avert from an eye. Another thing Mr. Allan did that showed that he could not tell right from wrong is that he sustained his belief that madness was an acuteness of the senses, which is overtly incorrect because madness doesn’t mean that a person have better senses, but means that a person believes he can hear things that are not real. A third reason Mr. Allan could not tell right from wrong was when he believed that the eye could possibly evil because it may have resembled a vulture’s eye, which is absurd because no eye can be evil, because an eye doesn’t have a brain of its own, and an eye cannot be “possessed”.

Edgar Allan could not control his behavior because many times throughout the story and at the time of the murder, he was angry at objects or sounds without much basis on why he was mad. He stated, “It was open—wide, wide open—and I grew furious as I gazed upon it.” As well as, “It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.” Edgar Allan could not control his behavior at the time of the murder because he was furious when he shined the light on the eye and he got even madder when he heard what he thought was John’s heart beating which implies Edgar was feeling scared about killing John. Mr. Allan also had a phobia for the old man’s eye, in which he could not get control his fear of the eye because of how it looked.

In conclusion, Edgar Allan was legally insane when he murdered John Poe, although was sane near the time of the murder and at other times, he was legally insane because he could not control his behavior, because he could not distinguish fantasy from reality, and finally, because he could not tell right from wrong.