Comparing Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart And The Black Cat

Death, love, darkness, betrayal, greed, and cruelty are all themes that Edgar Allen Poe use in his stories. He uses these themes with different settings and characters, which all relate. The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat are two of Poe’s stories that have different settings and characters but have the same themes. Edgar Allen Poe was a nineteenth century author who wrote stories. His stories were full of mystery, suspense and horror. His writings were influenced by his own life. Growing up poor and not knowing his parents helped him create his bizarre works. His father was never in his life and his mother died while he was three years old. This caused Poe to have sociological issues later on in life. He became a heavy alcoholic and he was addicted to a drug called opium. Two of his stories, Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat, were both published in 1843. The narrators in each story committed murders. There were many things that caused them to commit murders. In the Tell Tale Heart, the narrator opens the story saying that he is nervous, but he is not mad. He took care of an old man in the story. He did not

He loved them and took care of them. As the narrator grew older he began abusing his pets. He owned birds, rabbits, a monkey, dog goldfish and a cat named Pluto. His cat Pluto was black and was the narrators’ favorite. He mistreated his other animals but he did not mistreat his cat. The narrator was an alcoholic. He became violent when he was intoxicated. One day when he was under the influence, and grabbed the frightened cat, and the cat retaliated and bit him. The narrator became furious with the cat and he grabbed a pen-knife and cut out one of its eyes. When he did this, the narrator felt sudden regret and guilt. Following the first incident, he ended up hanging the cat in a tree. Later on that night, the narrator woke up to his house in flames. He and his wife managed to escape them.