Comparing the Narrative Skills in The Stolen Bacillus by H.G. Wells and Hop Frog by Edgar Allan Poe
Works Cited Missing
In the nineteenth century, short stories became more and more popular,
especially to the working class people. As they had limited spare
time, they were attracted to short stories rather then long novels.
The technology of printing in the nineteenth century enabled large
number of books , magazines and newspapers to be printed not only
cheaply but quickly and of a good quality.
Magazines and newspapers were attractive to working class people who
had little time to read lengthy novels.
The titles of the stories I have studied set expectations and give
clues as to what the story could be about , for example , ' Hop Frog '
, when I saw this title I thought that the story was going to be
comical , and when I read the title of ' The Stolen Bacillus ' I
thought that the story was going to be dramatic.
Both of the stories captured my attention and interest from the
beginning. ' The Stolen Bacillus ' starts his story with direct
speech, the story starts with a conversation. Edgar Allan Poe starts
his story by setting the scene and atmosphere by describing the
characters and setting , you could describe this as fairytale - like
as the story consists of a King and Ministers.
' … ' This again ' said the Bacteriologist … '
( taken from ' The Stolen Bacillus ' by H.G Wells )
H.G Wells starts his story with direct speech.
' … I never knew anyone so keenly alive to a joke as the king was … '
( taken from ' Hop Frog ' by Edgar Allan Poe )
Edgar Allan Poe presents his story with a first person narrator and
the person is in the actual story , however we never find out who that
person is , I think this is intriguing for the reader
' The Stolen Bacillus ' has been written by an omniscient author , he
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.”
In “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of the Amontillado’ Montresor and the unknown narrator are both murders through their confessions they reveal both their similarities and differences. The unknown narrator is trying to convince the auditor of his sanity while Montresor is attempting to convince the auditor of justifiable revenge. It is through these confessions they are trying to convince the auditor of their humanity and of their innocence through the justification of these horrible acts (Dern 53).
Though the king initially represents a joyous man, his physical characteristics and dark humor state otherwise. In fact the narrator makes note of, that for the king “He would have preferred Rabelais’ ‘Gargantua’ to the ‘Zadig’ of Voltaire: and, upon the whole, particle jokes suited his taste far better than verbal ones” (Poe 1).Thus, in accordance to the unknown narrator, the king would fancy laughing at people as opposed to laughing with people. The narrator goes out to even state that the king also has a preference of what type of joke he likes. Instead of enjoying riddles and spoken humor, the king enjoys physically abusive humor. This quote is significant because it gives the reader an idea of how one characters outside role completely differs from their inner darker personality. A King is meant to govern his people, in this case however, the King wishes to oppress for his own pleasure. The Kings main sources of enjoyment were Hop-Frog and Trippetta. Both Hop-Frog and Triplett are described as being helpless and innocent. Hop-Frogs short height only adds to the child-like description given
To some of the most fanatic and most creative Poe fans the question may arise: could I reproduce the great Edgar’s works? And if the answer is yes, then how? We might assume that Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most recognizable authors and poets not only of his age but of the whole modern literature, but still we would face numerous difficulties in trying to imitate his writing. Also, placing him into a certain style or literary movement would give us some really tough hours. Poe can be considered either a Romantic or Gothic writer but we could find a number of arguments and counterarguments for this matter. Poe, in fact, reinterpreted the whole Gothic horror style and created a unique, distinct brew of Gothic fiction, Romanticism and his own gloomy mind. On the basis of A Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart, we can deduct that despite the uniqueness of Poe’s works there are some recurring elements in Poe’s short-stories. Generally, if anyone wanted to write a Poesque short story, here are the ingredients: a fine case of murder, a big spoonful of madness and a pinch of revenge.
The authors, Ambrose Bierce of 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' and Edger Allan Poe of 'The Tell Tale Heart' have unique styles to pull the reader into the story. Both authors use unreliable narrator and imagery to allow the reader to picture and follow the narrator's way of thinking. In the Tell Tale Heart, the man is very repetitious and his psychotic behavior is what intrigues the overall dark madness of The Tell Tale Heart. In Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Bierce uses illusions to allow the reader to follow wherever his ideas lead which also intrigues the overall dark madness effect.
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.
mere jester in the eyes of the King, because he was also a cripple and
himself, it is how he got as far he did in the novel (money wise). He
A virtuoso of suspense and horror, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his Gothic writing style. His style is created through his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, and figurative language. Punctuation-wise; dashes, exclamation marks, semicolons, and commas are a favorite of Poe. His sentences vary greatly; their structures are influenced by punctuation. Much of his word choice set the tone of his works. Figurative language colors his writings with description. Such is observed in the similarities between two of his most well-known short stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) pioneered many of the most enduring forms of American popular culture, including detective story and the Gothic or sensational tale. I will compare and contrast five short stories of Poe: The Gold-Bug, The Purloined Letter, “Thou Art the Man”, The Cask of Amontillado and The Pit and the Pendulum. The genre, the purpose and role of the narrator and the parallelism between all of the stories will be examined.
D. H. Lawrence wrote an essay that extensively describes Edgar Allen Poe’s writing style. Lawrence looks at Poe’s work as a scientific and mechanical way of writing. The tales Poe writes are not really tales at all. The only reason they are even considered as tales is because they are a concatenation of cause and effect. Lawrence saw Edgar’s stories as more than just a tales. They are love stories. Poe does not write looking at the human part of someone’s life. The characters are looked at as inanimate objects with human qualities, rather than the characters being human with inorganic qualities.
The two short stories that I have chosen by Edgar Allan Poe are The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat. These two stories in particular have many things in common as far as technique goes, but they do have some significant differences between the two. In this paper I will try to compare and contrast these two short stories and hopefully bring something to the readers attention that wasn't there at first.
Benfey, Christopher. "Poe and the Unreadable: 'The Black Cat' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart " New Essays on poe's Major Tales viii (1993): 27-43
In “The Purloined Letter,” Edgar Allan Poe’s use of complex literary devices reveals his unique writing style. These literary devices include: allusions, metaphors, irony, foreshadowing events, and a detailed exposition. In the very beginning of the short story, Poe provides the reader with information about the setting and timing of the story. This aids the reader to clearly identify what exactly takes place. Poe, known perhaps more for his grotesque and gothic short stories, wrote detective and mystery short stories as well. Within one of his most famous detective short stories, “The Purloined Letter,” Poe illustrates the theme of logic and cleverness to prove the essential nature of intelligence and detail.
The title of the story represents irony when the true essence of the title is completely different from what the reader might think it to be.