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Amontillado And The Tell Tale Heart Comparison Essay

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Edgar Allan Poe is a renowned author known for his dark twist and horrifying stories. He is known for using the world around him, animals, dark architecture, and weather to produce bone chilling literature that readers can’t seem to put down. Two of his most well known thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe had a way of mixing setting, characters, theme, and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator’s only reason for murdering the old man was because he didn't like the look of his disfigured eye. There was no real motive for the murder as said: “Object there was none... I loved the old man. He had never wronged me...” (884.) The narrator states that the old man's eye was a pale blue color with film over it, resembling a vulture. In reality it was probably just a cataract. The narrator continuously insists and tries to convince the reader that he is …show more content…

This short story contains an important theme that differs from “The Cask of Amontillado”. Human nature is a muted balance of light and dark or good and evil. Often this unstable balance is maintained; except, when there is a transition, for any reason, the dark or evil can consume the mind. In this situation it is the evil eye of the old man that sends the narrator into a demented state. It is his irrational fear that eventually summons his evil side to commit an unnecessary murder. The murderer carefully plans his crime and waits for the perfect time to commit the act of horror. The murderer then covers his act by burying in his secret so that no one may find out. This is also seen in “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montressor waits for his victim to be in a weak state and then covers his crime by also, in a sense, burying up his victim. What is different within “The Tell-Tale Heart” Poe adds a new element to help provoke the dark side of the narrator, that is the

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