Comparing Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, The Black Cat, and The Tell-tale Heart
The short stories of Edgar Allen Poe demonstrate the author's ample gifts in the psychology of the mind, regardless of the fact he was decades ahead of Freud. Poe's short stories are often from the deranged and murderous point-of-view of the narrator, who often illustrates the inner-workings of his own psychology and the disintegration of the self brought about by psychological disorders, aberrations, and other factors (anxiety, substance abuse, etc.). Perhaps two main factors omnipresent in the Poe psychological realm are substance abuse (i.e. alcoholism) and taphophobia (exaggerated fear of being buried alive).
In short stories like The Cask of Amontillado, The Black Cat, and The Tell-tale Heart, Poe constructs a psychological world where alcoholism and the fear of being buried alive are inextricably intertwined. So, too, the combination of them has an impact on the narrators and characters in his stories. Poe's own alcoholism and taphophobia are inextricably intertwined in the psyche of his narrators and/or characters.
In all three of these short stories, the narrator an...
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...xacerbates the psychological symptoms being manifested due to taphophobia. Yet, these stories amply demonstrate Poe's own preoccupation with alcohol and drinking as well as his neurosis with respect to being buried alive.
References
Anonymous. (2001). Criteria for Substance Dependence Diagnosis. DSM-II-R, NIDA, Available: http://www.nida.gov/DSR.html, 1-3.
Anonymous. (2001). Let's talk facts about phobias. APA, Available: http://www.guggenheim.yourmd.com, 1-4.
Poe, E. A. (1966). Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe. New York, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado are two stories written by Edgar Allen Poe in the 18th century. Both of these stories are primarily focused on the mysterious and dark ways of the narrator. Since these stories were written by the same author, they tend to have several similarities such as the mood and narrative, but they also have a few differences. For instance, the characteristics of both narrators are different, but both stories portray the same idea of the narrator being obsessive over a certain thing.
In the ten years following 1836, Edgar Allan Poe established himself as a short story writer, writing the well known stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” in 1843 and “The Cask of Amontillado” in 1846. As dark as his nature was, the two stories were equally dark, one about a man killing an elderly man with a creepy eye, and the other about a rich dude killing someone who insulted him. As both of the tales possess main elements of murder and death, both of them also have elements that link the stories even more such as their protagonists, character motivations, and resolutions.
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.
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I have read both short stories by Edgar Allen Poe, ‘the Cask of Amontillado, as well as ‘the Tell Tale Heart. Between these two stories lie many similarities and few differences. For instance, both of these stories the narrator describes a murder. In the Cask, the narrator Montressor, whose sanity is questionable, describes the way he murdered his rival Fortunato. The man Fortunato, who isn’t all that fortunate in death, has insulted Montressor many times and Montressor seeks revenge for so long, but hasn’t acted until now. Fortunato was a connoisseur of wine, and was a very wealthy man. Montressor is equally as wealthy as he, however, he has something to prove by killing Fortunato, but doesn’t want to be caught doing so. "I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong". As a result, he doesn’t allow Fortunato, or anyone to know how angry he is, or that he seeks to teach him a lesson. Montressor’s goal is to make Fortunato feel as weak, upon his own death, as Montressor did enduring the insults and embarrassment he suffered.
Edgar Allan Poe was a child whose life was riddled with pain from the beginning. By the age of two his father had already fled the house and his mother had died in a circus accident. Then suddenly his life made a change for the good he was adopted by a rich family who cared about him. Edgar’s death though still clouded, by shroudery was apparently caused by the alcohol that he had consumed that fateful night. Alcohol had always left an impression in his life through the good and the bad he was known to be an alcoholic.
In the Edgar Allan Poe stories "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" the most prominent and important themes that are used are death, logic, and irony. The characters of the narrator and Montresor in these stories are both coldblooded murders who kill for selfish and inane reasons who firmly believe that their actions are justified even though their justifications only make sense in their own minds. They both try to convince their audience that they are sane by explaining to them their reasons for killing their victims and admitting how they did it, which only helps to prove their insanity. The narrator and Montresor are similar in that they both have impaired senses of judgment encouraged by perverse morals and believe that the horrible things that they do are justifiable.
Here Camus is saying that an absolutely evil person is cut from society and the society is portraying itself as absolutely good. Camus is also saying that society can not, in any ones right mind, pass for being absolutely good. I would have to agree with this point. It is only obvious that our society would not pass for being absolutely good because no matter what we choose to do as a society, there will always be some people that do and do not agree.
Reading Edgar Allen Poe’s works such as “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart” are both written around 1840’s and written in the gothic style. Poe displays his horror short stories, in which the reader can differentiate his signature style. Although many of Poe’s significant works may have a similar theme, the reader can distinguish the themes through the characters in “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart.”
“The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”, all have common motifs; death, fear or terror, and madness. Each story has their own special way of showing the three different motifs. In all three stories these three motifs were connected in some way. Someone was afraid of something or someone, which drove them mad, which led them to kill someone. In the case of “The Cask of Amontillado” death was caused by revenge, and hate. Death, fear and madness are all common themes in a lot of Poe's work. They add depth and different perspectives to look at things from. They all make the stories what they are.
“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest of intelligence,” Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is famous in the writing world and has written many amazing stories throughout his gloomy life. At a young age his parents died and he struggled with the abuse of drugs and alcohol. A great amount of work he created involves a character that suffers with a psychological problem or mental illness. Two famous stories that categorize Poe’s psychological perspective would be “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Both of these stories contain many similarities and differences of Poe’s psychological viewpoint.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of America’s most celebrated classical authors, known for his unique dealings within the horror genre. Poe was a master at utilizing literary devices such as point of view and setting to enhance the mood and plot of his stories leading to his widespread appeal that remains intact to this day. His mastery of aforementioned devices is evident in two of his shorter works “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.
Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966. Print.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. “The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural world.” (Womack). Poe uses many of the American Gothic characteristics such as emotional intensity, superstition, extremes in violence, the focus on a certain object and foreshadowing lead the reader through a series of events that are horrifying and grotesque. “The Black Cat is one of the most powerful of Poe’s stories, and the horror stops short of the wavering line of disgust” (Quinn).
Edgar Allan Poe was a man who unfortunately was born into a life full of morbidity and grief. The stories and poems that he created reflect the experience he has with agonizing situations, in which Poe’s dark side developed; his evil reasoning and twisted mentality allowed Poe to develop extremely vivid and enthralling stories and works. Due to not only his family members but also his wifes to passing from tuberculosis, morbidity and grief is present in almost every work that Poe created. From major works such as “the Raven”, “Black Cat”, “Annabel Lee”, and the Tell- Tale Heart, Poe utilized themes such as death, premature burials, body decompositions, mourning, and morbidity to enhance his point an the image he attempted to convey.