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The short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, published in January of 1843 and the story, “The Cask of Amontillado”, published in November of 1846 were both written by Edgar Allan Poe. The stories both have notable similarities and differences. Although both stories encompass an unstable narrator, the narrator's personality, motives for murder, and how they display guilt differ in each story.
The narrators in “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are both unstable murders. They might both be unstable but their personalities are drastically different. The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is very impatient and impulsive. Poe shows that the narrator was impatient when he said “ But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me --the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man’s hour had come”(108)! Instead of waiting for the perfect time to kill the old man, the narrator acted impulsively, killing the old man because of his fear of the neighbors hearing
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But the ways in which they show the guilt are different. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator is very clearly displaying signs of guilt. For example when the narrator says “Yet the sound increased --and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound --much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton”. The sound that the narrator is describing is his own heartbeat. His increasing heart rate would be a sign that he is feeling guilty and eventually his guilt really gets to him and leads to a confession. Where as the narrator in “The Cask of Amontillado” clearly does not feel as guilty. After Montresor kills Fortunato he says “ My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so”. What Montresor was really feeling is guilt but he doesn't even recognise that. He shrugs it off as the dampness and continues on with his
Poe, Edgar A. "Short Stories: The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe." Short Stories: The
The Tell-Tale Heart begins with the narrator explaining that he is not mad, rather just very disturbed by about the vulture eye of the old man living in the same house. He seemed to be a bit nervous more than anything. On the other hand, the narrator of The Cask of Amontillado seemed to be quite arrogant. He was very confident that his plan to have revenge on Fortunato was going to work. Although the traits of the narrators are not quite similar, they both had the same idea in mind. That idea was to commit murder on a man they had a problem with. To me, both narrat...
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most celebrated literary authors of all time, known for writing very suspenseful, dramatic short stories and a poet; is considered as being a part of the American Romantic Movement, and a lesser known opinion is he is regarded as the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. Most recognized for his mystery and macabre, a journey into the dark, ghastly stories of death, deception and revenge is what makes up his reputation. The short story under analysis is a part of his latter works; “The Cask of Amontillado”, a story of revenge takes readers into the mind of the murderer.
In order to fully understand Poe’s use of the narrator the two previously mentioned stories must be summarized. "The Cask of Amontillado" is a tale about the narrator, Montresor, who desires to act revenge on his acquaintance Fortunato. He lures Fortunato into his basement in order for Fortunato to examine a rare wine called an Amontillado. While in the deep crypt Montresor offers Fortunato more and more wine so that by the time Fortunato gets to the area where the cask is kept he is heavily intoxicated. Montresor then chains Fortunato to a stone and begins to build a wall, trapping Fortunato inside the crypt to die while Fortunato screams and pleads for his life. Montresor, hearing his pleas for mercy and life, ignores them and continues to build the wall knowing that no one will ever find the body of the unfortunate Fortunato.
As characters go, Montresor and the unnamed murderer of “The Tell-Tale Heart” are extremely devious. Montresor from “The Cask of Amontillado” was deceitful enough to use reverse psychology on everyone he
The narrators in both works prove to be similar in several ways. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the story is told through a psycho narrator; both stories contain apparent psychological imbalances within their story tellers, “ -his central character or narrator so psychologically obsessed with a mysterious phenomenon that everything in the story irresistibly revolves around it...”(May, Charles E.) There really is no motive for the murder of the old man; just his eye that he cannot stand. He repeats himself frequently, trying to assure the reader, and himself, that he is sane; leading to believe he may not be psychologically stable. In “The Cask of Amontillado” the narrator can also be considered a mad man by the way he plays games with his victim. Montressor says to Fortunato that they should go home because “his health is precious.” This conversation is ironic because Montressor does not really want to protect Fortunato's health, but to kill him in the catacombs. Both of the narrators are proud of their murders and brag about them within the stories. Not only are the narrators similar but the settings are alike once the murders take place, both locations of the victims are buried in a dark place with no escape.
Have you ever felt the urge to know how it feels to be insane. Have you wonder how it would feel to be rid of something that haunted you for eight days. Have you felt the thrill of getting rid of it by ending it. I might be a little crazy but, I strongly believe that tell tale heart is appropriate for the 8th grade standard. “What is the Tell Tale Heart?”, you my ask. Tell Tale Heart is a horror genre story that is about a man who suffers from a mental disease, and he lives with a old man that never harmed him or wronged him. What made him kill him was because of the old man’s eye. “It was like a vulture’s eye” (pg.89) so he stalked him in his sleep every night for seven days just to see the old man’s eye open. His verge to insanity he was not stable. He was already ill, but instead of seeking for help he states that it sharpened his senses. He stated that he was trustworthy (no end mark; reread this run-on
"The Cask of Amontillado" is one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest stories. In this story Poe introduces two central characters and unfolds a tale of horror and perversion. Montresor, the narrator, and Fortunato, one of Montresor's friends, are doomed to the fate of their actions and will pay the price for their pride and jealousy. One pays the price with his life and the other pays the price with living with regret for the rest of his life. Poe uses mystery, irony, and imagery to create a horrifying, deceptive, and perverse story.
The power to change is man’s greatest struggles, since a strong influence that lead them to where they are now. It is also the price and journey that both Montresor in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell Tale Heart” and the narrator of the “The Cask of Amontillado”, another of poe’s story. In both story the narrators, both indicate that they want to get rid of an addiction they had that is driving them to madness, and in order to do so they, must do it at any cost. Both narrator clearly plan on their instincts and carefully plans out methods in which leads them to their satisfaction. These stories contain many similarities and differences in the use of tone, irony and symbolism, of the protagonist. Through these characters and their actions,
In this particular story, Poe decided to write it in the first person narrative. This technique is used to get inside the main character's head and view his thoughts and are often exciting. The narrator in the Tell-Tale Heart is telling the story on how he killed the old man while pleading his sanity. To quote a phrase from the first paragraph, "The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story." This shows that we are in his thou...
In the short stories "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe is about murderers who have killed to satisfy their needs. Although there are similarities between the two of them, but one murderer is clearly more dangerous than the other.
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe is a short story told in the gothic genre. Although this story was written decades after the popularity of the genre, The gothic genre through its descriptions of the atmosphere as well as its use of grotesque and macabre imagery creates a sense of alienation, chaos, entrapment, uncertainty, and terror in the reader. Gothic literature often deals with themes of death, fears and anxieties, good vs evil, estrangement, and revenge. Furthermore, gothic literature often ends with a sense of moral closure and resolution. The Cask of Amontillado use of gothic conventions can be seen in its setting. However, the story’s unconventional use of irony and omission of moral closure adds to the psychological
In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montressor was calm and collected. He is ruthless in achieving his only motive throughout the story, which is revenge for how Fortunado has offended him. Even after Montressor committed murder, he does not reveal this fact to anyone for over fifty years. This fact depicts Montressor does not feel guilty. On the other hand, In “Tell-Tale Heart,” the man’s personality is described as insane, constantly nervous, and paranoid. He rarely sleeps at all and portrays to be completely lonely. Once the man kills the old man, he instantly begins hearing a noise a heart pumping. The pumping of the old man’s heart, which is getting louder each moment, portrays the killer’s guilty conscience. However, in the the “Tell-Tale Heart, the murderer’s unstable mental health and guilty conscience lead him to bury the old man’s body under the floorboard in an extremely brutal manner. He also confesses to the authority, assuming they can all hear the noise of the heart
Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado" is similar to the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" in that his obsession with consuming the soul of Fortunato influences his every action. However, it is with Fortunato himself that he is obsessed. He feeds off of Fortunato's pain, unlike the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" who's obsession is with destroying a menacing inanimate object. Montresor's entire conspiracy is focused around making Fortunato suffer, and for him to know just who is causing this suffering. This is why he goes to such lengths to put together this intricate strategy. It could have been so much easier to kill Fortunato in some easier, quicker way. Instead, he dedicates himself to torturing Fortunato. He creates a plan that leads Fortunato into the depths of the catacombs beneath his home, and kills him in an excruciating manner.
Unlike “The Tell Tale Heart” were the narrator loved the old man just hated his eye, the narrator of “The Cask of Amontillado” hated Fortunato but did things that make it look like he loved him. Montresor approaches Fortunato with claiming to have acquired something that could pass for Amontillado. Here Montresor may seem like he is being nice but he really just using Fortunato’s love for wine against him. As they went through the catacombs Montresor gave Fortunato enough wine so that he would be drunk and would be oblivious of what was happening as they went deeper and deeper into the catacombs. Fortunato never expected this to be the plan but just as a simple act of kindness from Montresor. As mentioned in the introduction of this paper the narrator of this story wanted revenge. Why does the Montresor want revenge? Well it is mention in the story on page three “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” but never gives us a full reason just that Fortunato insulted the Montresor in some