Comparing Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart And The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the most horrifying stories ever written through out time. He worked with the natural world, animals, and weather to create chilling literature. Two most notable thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe was infatuated with death, disfigurement, and dark characteristics of the world. He could mix characters, setting, theme,and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. Both of these short stories have the same major aspects in common.

Edgar Allen Poe was the author of several daunting works of literature. Two examples of Edgar Allen Poe's literature are "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Raven." If we compare these two works, one a short story and the other a poem, we will see that Poe shows great mastery of symbolism, as well as other forms of literary technique. In these two stories, many people would say that Poe uses the tales to reflect the way he perceives life in general. Poe makes obvious use of symbolism, metaphors and imagery within these two works of literature.

Chills run down your spine as a breath of wind rushes past your frame. Incoherent whispering fills your ear due to the flowing wind… Edgar Allen Poe, one of America’s most prolific writers, wrote numerous horror stories that defined the genre for modern writing. Effort went into creating the style that he was known for, but was it constant from one story to the next? Despite differences in plot and length there are similarities of tone, setting, structure, narration, and character between two of his most famous stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” that allude to Poe’s true writing style.

The Black Cat is one of Poe’s most memorable stories. The story was first published in 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. This like a study of the psychology of guilt, paired with other works by Poe. “Near the beginning of the tale, the narrator says he would be "mad indeed" if he should expect a reader to believe the story, implying that he has already been accused of madness” (Cleman). Poe is creating a sense of confusion for the readers and making them think more about the story before reading. The story is centered around a black cat and the idea of deterioration of a man. From his prison cell, the narrator is writing the story about his life which is falling apart. He has a love for animals, and for his wife that he married young. One of the things that he takes on as a hobby, is

Have you ever read “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe? It is a short story about a man whose mental state deteriorates over time. The narrator loves the old man, however he has a deep hatred toward the old man’s vulture-like eye. This essay will be explaining the ways Poe keeps his readers in suspense. Edgar Allan Poe uses time, repetition, and descriptive language to set the pace, tone, and mood.

Edgar Allen Poe has created many stories that are dark, suspenseful, and murderous such as The Tell- Tale Heart and The Black Cat. His works tend to resemble one another in style, mood, theme, and plot. The ways in which these elements are displayed show contrast between the two. The Tell- Tale Heart and The Black Cat are two brutal tales with similar themes about being insane. Both stories are told from the first person point of view with a maniacal narrator.

Poe's economic style of writing is a key instrument in making this story amazing. In this story, he uses his style to truly bring out what he intended for the story - a study of paranoia. In example, "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever. " it is easy to see that Poe used short sentences, to capture the rapid thoughts of a twisted mind.

There are two main characters in the story of The Tell-Tale Heart which Poe has refined to reflect the

old man or his eye. It may be his phobia of the dark side, and

Have you ever read or heard a story that made your heart hammer, your knees grow weak, and leave you jumping at shadows? Well, Edgar Allan Poe, a mystery and horror story writer, has written some of the most descriptive and eerie murder stories that can leave you quaking. One of his most sinister works is the “Tell-Tale Heart”. Edgar Allan Poe uses time, repetition, noises, setting, and imagery to effectively create a spooky and disturbing atmosphere in his works. These aspects creates the realistically scary feeling...but how does he apply all that in his writing?

Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most influential and important writers of the nineteenth century. He was the first writer to try to make a living only writing. One of Poe’s most popular short stories, “The Black Cat”, is considered horror fiction or gothic fiction which Poe is known for in his books and short stories because it was a popular genre during his days. In Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat”, Poe uses a horror fiction genre, a mentally deranged and evil narrator/character, and symbolism of death to make a thrilling story with tons of suspense, drama, and gruesome detail.

Edgar Allen Poe was a great author in the 18th century. He is the author of both The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado. Both of these stories show the dark and mysterious ways of the narrator. Well, these stories have been written by the same author. Hence, they have some similarities and differences. Poe is a great writer who can describe a scene in one paragraph. The stories have the right tone and a gloomy mood. Edgar Allen Poe being the author of The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado, he shows some similarities like the mood of the narrators though there is a difference in the characteristics of the narrators. The narrators have similar motives and mental states though their plans of action and the outcomes of their crimes are different.

Poe writes “The Tell Tale Heart” from the perspective of the murderer of the old man. When an author creates a situation where the central character tells his own account, the overall impact of the story is heightened. The narrator, in this story, adds to the overall effect of horror by continually stressing to the reader that he or she is not mad, and tries to convince us of that fact by how carefully this brutal crime was planned and executed. The point of view helps communicate that the theme is madness to the audience because from the beginning the narrator uses repetition, onomatopoeias, similes, hyperboles, metaphors and irony.

Writers can use many tricks to make a story seem more interesting to the reader. From the words they pick to the setting to the time of the day... the possibilities are endless. In the story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe, the use of light and darkness, the description of the mans eye and the time frame make the story more scary than anything else. Poe also uses suspense at the end to make the readers heart beat faster.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1839, can be compared to Poe’s later work “The Tell-Tale Heart”, published in 1843. In both gothic stories, there are physical deformities, mental illness, and despicable crimes. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Roderick Usher, the main character, and one of the last of the Usher blood line, had a twin sister, Madeline, who suffered from a mysterious illness. After believing she had died, Roderick learned that was not the case --Madeline was still alive-- yet he buried her anyway. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, an unnamed narrator lived with an old man, whom he was plotting to murder because he wanted to help rid the world of the old man’s evil eye. In both Poe’s stories death is a very prominent theme (Davis).