Essay on A Comparison of The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black...

A Comparison of The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet and writer who is regarded as a master of the macabre, focusing on the horror genre with themes of death and insanity being explored throughout his work. Many traits of his main characters, such as the alcohol abuse of the protagonist in The Black Cat are borrowed from his own experiences, with the demons of drugs and alcohol eventually driving Poe to his death. His stories in general share the social setting of his own life, which was east-coast America in the mid-1800s, when at the time the distinct stoicism of the Victorian era was prevalent and insanity was a taboo subject - people who displayed an†¦show more content†¦In The Tell-Tale Heart, we see the narrator describe his change from perfectly comfortable to extremely nervous as the supposedly beating heart haunts him. He says Yet the sound increased - a low, dull, muffled sound - much such a sound a watch makes when enveloped in cotton which references how he described the mans heartbeat as he killed him. Perhaps this was his own heartbeat, because the old man was obviously lifeless, and we were told at the start of the story how dreadfully nervous the narrator was. His nervousness caused him to come forward as the perpetrator because he could not handle the emotional challenge of concealing the body. In The Black Cat, it was by accident that the body was revealed to the police. The main character remarks, this is a very well-constructed house, while rapping on the wall with a cane, causing the bricks to fall away. Right up until the revealing of the body, this man displays a stable state of mind to all around him. Neither man displays any remorse for the killings. The difference between the two murders is that in The Tell-Tale Heart, the murder does not come as a surprise. We are prepared from the start for what is going to happen, as he says I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. Poes mastery isShow MoreRelatedSimilarities Between The Tell Tale Heart And The Black Cat946 Words   |  4 Pagestuberculosis. Two of these stories were titled â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† and â€Å"The Black Cat.† In â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart,† a man kills another man because his eye made him feel weak and fragile. He hid the body in the floor only to be found out later because his own heart and mind were beating so hard he couldn’t take the guilt and admitted to the murder. Then, in â€Å"The Black Cat,† a man rips the eye out of his own cat then later hangs it. After that, he finds another cat who looked just like the last and when heRead MoreDeath in Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe984 Words   |  4 Pages In the short story â€Å"Masque of the Red Death† By: Edgar Allen Poe he delivers the theme of age old inevitability of death and futility of trying to escape death, the setting of his story is based during a time when the bubonic â€Å"black† plague took over Europe. The black plague was a bacterium that survived in rats and rodents, human beings became infected when they got bitten by the fleas that lived on these rodents and rats; you knew you had gotten infected by several symptoms such as bleeding inRead MoreEssay on Compare and Contrast Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now1353 Words   |  6 Pageswhen I learned that it was sort of based on Joseph Conrads famous novella, Heart of Darkness. Conrads book, the tale of the sailor Marlowes African adventure, is a study on the evils of colonialism. The two stories at first glance do not seem very similar, but after examining both, it is quite shocking the degree of similarity between the two. Many people have been able to draw comparisons to Joseph Conrads novel Heart of Darkness and Francis Ford Coppolas film Apocalypse Now, but the two areRead MoreDark Romanticism By Edgar Allen Poe1625 Words   |  7 PagesRomanticism is the complete opposite of romanticism. According to what is dark romanticism â€Å" Dark Romanticism is. A sort of genre threat combines traditional love objects, like visually heart shapes, cute Costumes, and cupids, with distinct elements of the gothic, such as the color black,animals familiar like cats and bats or other dark figures such as vampires and witchcraft†. This essay will bring to you information about dark romanticism and many literature artist who use this style of writingRead More The Evil Eye in The Tell-Tale Heart Essay1795 Words   |  8 PagesThe Evil Eye in The Tell-Tale Heart  Ã‚        Ã‚   In Edgar Allen Poes Short story The Tell-Tale Heart much is made of the evil eye of the old man. Immediately we are introduced to a man who would never hurt a fly. The narrator of the story even goes so far as to say he loved the old man. This old man is portrayed as one who would do anything for you. However, the caretaker of the old man has one small problem with the old man. The eye that darn evil eye! What could cause a person to become enragedRead MorePoe vs. Shakespeare Essay1556 Words   |  7 PagesThe Comparison of Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare Brandi Greene University Composition and Communication I/COM155 May 9th, 2013 University of Phoenix The Comparison of Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare Many have been inspired by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare in literature but, there are similarities and differences between the two. Each author could lure their audiences by the characteristics of their writing. Their places in society alsoRead More Flannery OConnor Essay1299 Words   |  6 PagesMan Is Hard to Find† and â€Å"Good Country People† are two ironically twisted tales of how two different families lives are altered after trusting and being mislead by a stranger. In â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard to Find,† O’Connor introduces a family whose lives ironically turn up side down while on a trip to Florida. For instance, before leaving on the trip, the grandmother (who wants to go to Tennessee in stead of Florida) tells her son, Bailey, about the newspaper article. Thus, the article states thatRead MoreEssay on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee2589 Words   |  11 Pagesrough edges but a soft heart on the inside. A character’s personality may be oversimplified by drawing shapes in symbolism, but the shapes may be helpful in perceiving the general extent of the characteristics. With a little help from Lee’s descriptions, I have been able to form images in my mind (and draw them on paper) of the personalities of Scout, Jem, Atticus, Dil, Calpurnia, Boo Radley, and Bob Ewell. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Scout’s shape has a green half-heart bottom, two green finger-likeRead MoreRhetorical Devices3007 Words   |  13 Pages | | |Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell (T.S. Eliot, Book of Practical Cats) | | |Moping melancholy mad (Housman, Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff) | | |Dombey and Son had often dealt in hides but not in hearts. They left that fancy war to boys and | | |girls, and boarding-schools and books. (Dickens, DombeyRead More An Analysis of Edgar Allan Poes Psychological Thriller Essay3707 Words   |  15 Pageshis thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemms. Much of his early work went unnoticed and it took until 1840 before Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes. This included the famous story The Fall of the House of Usher. Plans for starting his own magazine did not lead too much and he continued to work as a magazine editor for various publications. His Tales and The Raven and Other Poems, published in 1845, did bring him some recognition but unfortunately it was not enough