...The Tell-Tale Heart vs. The Black Cat Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” have many similarities as well as differences. The two stories can be compared for both have similar themes as well as corresponding plots. However, the two stories also contrast considering their different endings. Both of Poe’s stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” have the theme of death and murder. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator murder’s an old man with “a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” In the story, “The Black Cat,” the narrator murders his wife. The plots of the two stories are also alike for they both begin with the narrator reflecting on his crime, not seeing that he is “mad,” and end with...
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...short stories: “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. At first glance they seem to have very little in common however, after reading and looking more closely, you will notice that they share some striking similarities. In this paper I will illustrate how Poe’s stories “The Tell-Tale Heat” and “The Black Cat” share striking similarities in both meaning, content and ultimately justice. As stated above, both stories share elements of murder and insanity. Both stories are also told by first person narrators who are in prison after being caught for the murders they committed. In “The Black Cat” when the narrator kills his wife and conceals her body in the wall. Similarly, in “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator kills the old man and conceals his body under the floor boards. The question is, what was Poe’s preoccupation with hiding bodies within the structure of a house? Was Poe a former carpenter/brick layer, thus making him imagine concealing the bodies in this manner? Did Poe have delusions of his own about someone hiding a body within the home? Was he himself guilty of a heinous crime and used his writing as an admission of guilt? Another theme in both stories is the murder of seemingly innocent victims and the obsession leading to the murders. In “The Black Cat” the obsession is a cat named Pluto. Although the narrator originally had no problem with Pluto, he would eventually be driven to cut out Pluto’s eye because Pluto angered him and all because the cat loved him. The narrator...
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...Comparing the Theme of Madness in “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” This Essay is going to compare theme of madness presented to reader in two short stories ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’ both by Edgar Allan Poe. One might argue that the theme of madness is presented quite differently in both short stories if compared to each other. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ presents us a true madman; the main character kills the old man because of the look of the old mans eye. This is highlighted by the piece, which was extracted from the story itself “I loved the old man. He had never wrong me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes it was this” Furthermore it is clearly shown that the madman liked the old man and he didn’t want old mans money. Madman committed the most atrocious of crimes because of the old mans appearance. However the main character doesn’t think he is mad and strongly believes that the old mans eye was pure evil, and this is highlighted by the quotes from “The Tell-Tale Heart”. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him”. The main character almost tries to compensate the murder by saying that he was nice to the old man before he killed him. Moreover, the main character...
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...There are quite many similarities between these two short stories that Edgar Allen Poe created, with little differences. The main differences are the story itself, the characters, and the setting. However the stories are also similar; a man gets irritated by something, he acts irrationally towards it and kills it, and it becomes involved the supernatural and ends up making the man get caught by the police. This leads to one of the few differences in the stories and that is that in “The Black Cat,” the police arrest the man after finding evidence against him, in “The Telltale Heart,” the man that does the crime admits to it. Both stories start off with the main characters having an air of madness about them; as in “The Black Cat” it starts...
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...“The Tell-Tale Heart” is narrated by an unnamed individual about which little is revealed. The only fact that is known for certain is that the narrator lives with, and serves, an elderly man. At first he cannot speak to his motive for murder: “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.” (1127) Grasping for a motive, he says, “I think it was his eye!” and then, as if to convince himself as much as the audience, he declares, “yes, it was this!” (1127) Searching for a reason for his actions, his uncertainty is apparent and he attempts to justify the brutal murder and dismemberment of the old man, for which there is no apparent logical explanation, by blaming the “Evil Eye.” (1127)...
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...he had a really hard life with his loved ones dying of Tuberculosis. A quote from The Tell Tale Heart “here, here! The beating of his hideous heart!” that just proves he’s mad. Just imagine a family member was suffering from all of these, no one wants to have to go through that, it’s not something that happens to many people. All of those reasons affected his life, he didn’t just write about it, he lived it as well. Meanwhile, Poe being an alcoholic was a very big part of his writing on a book called The Black Cat. As he started to drink, he went crazy. He ended up killing his cat because his drinking was making him unstable, he killed his...
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...In the Romantic Works, Joyce Carol Oates, and Edgar Allen Poe explore the nature of violence through Gothic Elements. In Joyce Carol Oates works such as “Where is Here?”, and “Where Are You Going,Where Have You’ve Been”, and Edgar Allen Poe’s works such as “The Raven”, “A Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The Black Cat”, both of the author's give a form of imagery to create the feeling of violence. Such as Oates creates indirect violence, hidden within the lines, where Poe, has more explicit and direct violence not hidden between the lines. In Oates's works such as ,” Where is Here?”, violence is not told to be happening within the context of the writing, but one has to look more closely to actually see it. For example, in Oates work “Where is Her?” in his writing it says,” This was one of my happy places!-at least when my father was not home. “. When Oates writes about it being peaceful when the father was not home. It suggests that the father in a way was abusive, or in any form violent because in the tex . “The father violently jerked his arm and thrust her away”.In quote to this shows one of the rare direct violence in Oates writing where the father directly jerks the mother's hand away, and where the mother walks away, KNOWING that a bruise the size of a pear would appear on her arm in the morning. In oates other story “Where Are You...
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...Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat ENG 201 American Literature to 1865 2/28/2012 The Black Cat is a tale that leaves the reader somewhat perplexed. It certainly contains all the ingredients necessary to satisfy the appetite of any Poe enthusiast - an enigmatic narrator, alcohol and the effects thereof, mutilation, strangulation, murder, putrefaction, and, last but not least, one of Poe's slight (but recurring) obsessions, perversity - but we are left wondering whether the tale really amounts to anything much at all. One could almost split this short story into two halves: one that contains a couple of ideas worth considering; and another that simply indulges briefly in an unlikely plot before grinding to a predictable halt. Even the worst of Poe is, thanks to the very nature of the man, worthy of our interest and consideration. This paper will analyze one of Poe's recurrent themes as his stories often explore the determination of man's most twisted minds. The underlying theme of perversity in Poe’s The Black Cat, is evident in several different instances and levels of intensity. The dark tale starts out normal enough…for Poe anyways. The narrator and his wife own several pets. Among them is large black cat named Pluto. Pluto become an adversary to the narrator after, one day, in a drunken rage, the narrator blinds Pluto in one eye, and then hangs the cat from a tree. Mysteriously, the house burns to the ground, leaving a silhouetted mark of a cat hanging from a gallows...
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...Reference. In my view, "The Tell-Tale Heart" foregrounds different stages of Ego-Evil as the narrator defines himself through the narcissistic eye, the malicious glare, and the enigmatic gaze of the other. In the story, the narrator clearly grounds himself as a powerful Master who can determine all values. As a result, he sees that he is sane, and that his disease is good. His disease has merely "sharpened [his] senses -- not destroyed -- not dulled them" (91). He remains an absolute Master who has an eye for the ultimate Truth, hence he can "calmly tell [the readers] the whole story". This episode foregrounds the way of the eye, which is always on the side of the Subject and its narcissistic fantasy. In the Lacanian context, the eye allows the self to see itself as a unified creature and as a judge, hence the eye is essentially related to the imaginary "identity-building" process. However, as the eye sees what it wants to see, "sight" or "insight" can mean bias. As noted by Ellie Ragland, the eye gives a narcissistic perspective of "unification and fusion" that does not guarantee truth, though it certainly offers a personal "principle of law or judgment" (95). In the story, the eye's bias shows itself when the narrator immediately views the old man's disease in a negative light. The old man's cataract is seen to be the "Evil Eye" (89). If we borrow Martin Buber's concept, we may as well call it the "I-Thou difference." John Cleman believes that the narrator's mental...
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...On top of that, the main character of “The Black Cat” provides several reasons for his abnormal behaviors which ultimately indicates his insanity. The narrator once who was kind becomes abusive and violent due to alcoholism: “I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others” (6), and he kills his pet Pluto. I think that the narrator is also obsessed with Pluto’s eyes just like the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” is into the old man’s eyes. This is because the narrator’s cruelty and violence has been witnessed by Pluto, his eyes, and he cannot stand it. Moreover, ironically, the narrator tries to escape from his guilt by killing Pluto, and this clearly shows that he has some mental issues. The narrator...
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...Edgar Allan poe is a renowned poet best known for his short stories. He is a dark writer due to his tragic childhood. This childhood ,however,is one of the main reasons he wrote his dark tells. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 9th, 1809 in Boston. His parents were travelling actors that did not make much money. When he was just 2 years of age, his father abandoned them leaving Elizabeth to take care of their kids Edgar, his older brother Henry and his infant sister Rosalie. Soon after this things got worse. His mother, Elizabeth Poe, died from the disease tuberculosis. Within days of this Edgar’s father, David Poe, also died of the same disease. The three Poe children were split up.Henry went to live with his paternal grandparents. Rosalie was adopted by the McKenzie family. Edgar was taken in by a couple who could not have children, John and...
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...翁良權 98121232 Introduction to English Literature, Wed 34 Professor:馬健君 Paper1: Essay for the Tell-Tale Heart(題目太籠統，不要學) Oct, 21, 2009 Essay for the Tell-Tale Heart(題目太籠統，不要學) This story is described from the murderer. He talks about the process how he killed the old man. The name of The Tell-Tale Heart gives the hint for what will happen next and the heart will do something startled. Using the name can make reader interested in knowing what the story will go. In the beginning, the murderer doesn’t think he has committed the crime. And he tries to convince reader to believe what he did is right. In the story, the author describes what the murderer feels in the whole story. His mood goes from excitement to confidence to guilt and to breaking down at length. The author uses precise sentences to describe those moods for example:“Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust head in.”,“I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph.”means the murderer at that time was really exciting;“I smiled,--for what had I to fear?”, “While I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim. ”means the murderer was confident to what he did without any mistakes; “No doubt I now grew very pale; but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice.”,“I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased.”means the murderer was guilty;“I felt that I must scream or die...
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...Kayla E. Lockaby Research Paper Rough Draft Mrs. Lawson and Mrs. Maddox English IV and History April 22, 2011 Edgar Allan Poe To most people, Edgar Allan Poe was a troubled soul that had many psychological issues. Some people think that his works mimicked his own mental torment and torture; others thought that he was an American writer romantically doomed to failure by events and emotions too great for him to handle. His writings reflect each theory, and his style was very unique and unusual for the time period in which they were written. The artistic liberties and risks that Poe took in his works sparked the beginning of what we call the Romanticism Period. The hardships and tragedies which Edgar Allan Poe faced throughout his life played a big part in influencing his writing, how his writing influenced the period, and how it affected his mental stability (Life 240). Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, to David and Elizabeth Poe. He had two siblings, a younger sister named Rosalie and an older brother named Henry. When Poe was just one, his father abandoned his wife and children. At two his mother died of tuberculosis and the children were split up into different homes (Tragedies 240). Poe was taken in by John Allan and his childless wife Frances, giving him his middle name. Having experienced many tragedies at an early age, he, starting at the age of six, developed a great fear of death and this influenced how and what he would later write...
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...1) What is at stake in this decision for Carol and for Davis Press? Why? There is a lot at stake in this decision for Carol and Davis Press. Let’s take a look at what would happen if the book “Meccan Madness” were to be published. Referring to the past and what had happen to Rushdie when his book “The Satanic Verse” was released, it was mayhem. Death threats were issued, Rushdie was wanted dead for several years, and innocent people were killed and much more were injured. If Carol decides to publish Taajwar’s book, there is a possibility history could repeat itself, which includes Davis Press making high profits by selling the book, but also losing millions of dollars that went towards the security of employees. If Carol decided not to publish the book, it is obvious they will lose on the chance of making high profits. However, all the employees will remain safe and not have to fear what will happen to them if “Meccan Madness” is published. 2) Who are the stakeholders here? To whom (or what) does Davis owe her allegiance? The stakeholders in this case are the employees of Davis Press. The employees play a major role in this case because of the amount of work they do for the company. Another stakeholder in this case is the government because in the event problems occur between countries. This sort of situation happen when Rushdie’s book was published where there was issues between Britain and Iran. Carol owes her loyalty to the employees for the amount of...
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...Literature Creation Methods of Poe’s Gothic Tales ——Review of The Fall of the House of Usher 英81 高云君 2008012742 As one of the most famous works by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher is the a masterpiece in American gothic literature. The prose is full with of elements and details which are unsettling and macabre. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Poe’s gothic novels have always been my readings before bed since I was younga child. In my childhood, following the unnamed narrator and walking towards that old and creepy house, I was immersed in the horrible storyline and experience the fantastic feeling of nightmare. Today when I look back on this literature work, I get some deeper understanding and . Ⅰ. Hellish environment setting ：Use of double space The whole environment and different scenes in the story are so hellish that the reader feels a kind of inexplicable asphyxia. I summarize some typical elements Poe uses to build a gothic atmosphere. Day: a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn. Location: a singularly dreary tract of country. House and surrounding: upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees. The precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn. If that can be called the exterior space, then the internal...
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