Poe has enraptured almost all of his readers with his works and disclosed hidden themes for over a century. Indeed, two such timeless works, “Hop-Frog” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” intrigue readers with…
Hop-Frog is mad because he was forced to leave his family to become a joke for the king. He became a jester and the young woman, also known as Trippetta, was a beautiful dancer for the king to watch. Trippetta and Hop-Frog are forced to do the unimaginable. Hop-Frog is forced to drink wine until the king told him to stop. When Trippetta tries to stop the king, he throws the wine onto Trippetta. The only time Hop-Frog gets respect is when he is helping the King come up with a show for his ball. Hop-Frog comes up with an idea about eight orang-outangs, he explains to the king about how the guests will be scared and entertained. As he is telling the king his plan, he is thinking of how he could escape during the performance. Hop-Frog would do anything to get back home. Before the ball, he prepared the king and his seven for the entertainment. When the guest finally got focused into the orang-otangs, it was time for Hop-Frog and Trippetta to…
Edgar Allan Poe, reputed as the father of American short stories, is a poet, writer and literary critic of nineteenth century. His works, most of which explore the dark side of consciousness and subconsciousness of human beings, was well-known for horror and mystery. "The Black Cat" is one of Poe's masterpieces. It depicts love, hatred and fear between men through the narration of the changing relationship between a mentally abnormal man and a black cat. Loneliness, death, torture and abnormal psychology are core elements in "The Black Cat" This thesis aims to conduct a research on how Allan Poe managed to achieve psychological horror in "The Black Cat."…
Today I’ll be comparing the Narration of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe. Edgar Allen Poe is the author of many great pieces of literature, using his narrators to explain situations that are going on in their life. The narrators of "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Black Cat" both lead characters love for man’s inhumanity to man and animals through horrific murders.…
The problems of alcoholism and insanity are recurring themes in Poe’s literary works. One can say that “The Black Cat,” one of Poe’s short stories, portrays much of the author’s own views on his substance abuse problems and mental illness. The unnamed narrator from “The Black Cat,” struggles with his addiction to alcohol and his hatred for two cats become prevailing. The narrator states, however, that he was never like this before he loved animals, “never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them.” (Poe, 3). The narrator takes on a cat and cares for it, however, as his drinking problem progressed, he states, “I grew day by day more moody… my disease grew upon me.” (Poe, 4). After a night out drinking, he decides to cut out one of the cat’s eyes and ultimately, kills the cat. Later, another cat strangely identical to the first cat with one eye comes around and as the narrator tries to kill the second cat he ends up killing his wife instead. He buries the body of his wife and the second cat behind a wall and police later hear the cat calling out from inside the wall. In relation to Poe’s life, Poe was known to love cats and had a female cat named Catterina (Mercier). The killing of the first cat relates to Poe’s own destruction of the things he loved and desired due to alcoholism. He lost his job in 1837 due to his drinking and feuding with other editors (Edgar Allan Poe, Encyclo.) The killing of an innocent wife can closely relate to Poe’s views of women in his own life, through the deaths of both his mother figures and then eventually his wife. Poe writes about women who carry a unique beauty to them. The women are compassionate to the men they…
Both text have a similar theme, they both compare someone being trapped in something. Both characters want to escape what they are trapped in. For example, in the story "Boy's Life" the character is stuck in school and can’t wait until the bell rings. Which means that he is trying to leave or escape the place he is in, but he is held for a longer time because the teacher wants to discuss something with him and he doesn’t pay attention when she is talking to him which means he doesn’t have patience to listen all he wants to do is leave.…
Edgar Allan Poe stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher” “The Masque of The Red Death” “the Cask of Amontillado” and the pome “Alone” all have similarities such as death, fear and very dark setting. The reason Poe’s stories are similar is because he writes about his own life. Some of his stories are based off his own fears, and some of his stories are about is fears after his wife dies.…
In the narrative poem “The Raven” and the short story “Tell-Tale both by Edgar Allan Poe used literary devices to create a similar tone although the tone are some what different. “The Raven” is about a man who lost his lover, he got really sad. In the middle of the night the narrator sat down and read a book. The narrator heard someone knock on his door, he opened the door and it was a raven knocking on his chamber door. The raven kept saying “Nevermore”.The raven made the narrator go crazy because the raven wouldn't stop saying “Nevermore”. However, in the “Tell-Tale Heart” was about a man that was crazy since the beginning of the story. The narrator was planning on killing the…
Edgar Allan Poe believed that a short story should be written to create a single effect. He believed that every detail or incident of the story should contribute to the effect. The overall effect of "Hop-Frog" is the theme of revenge that is seen throughout the story. There are certain details and situations in the story that add to creating this effect.…
Bibliography: Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Black Cat.” An Exploration of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe. 15 May. 2009 < http://www.poestories.com/text.php?file=blackcat>.…
The stories are different in regards to the characters, because in “The Masque of the Red Death,” the only characters are Prince Prospero, and the “stranger,” who was the red death. While in “The Black Cat,” the characters were the narrator, the narrator’s wife, Pluto, and the new cat. These characters make the story different, because in “The Masque of the Red…
Another parallel between the two is regret after sinning. Lady Macbeth goes insane and begins to sleepwalk, and although not written, it is thought that she killed herself. In Edgar Allen Poe’s story, the narrator less drastically, goes insane from the thoughts of murder in his mind. He then comes clean and pulls out the body of the victim proving himself guilty in front of the authorities.…
Another parallel between the two is the guilt regret after sinning. Lady Macbeth goes insane and begins to sleepwalk, and killed herself. In Edgar Allen Poe’s story, the narrator less drastically, also goes insane from the thoughts of murder in his mind. He then comes clean and pulls out the body of the victim proving himself guilty in front of the police.…
Another common theme between the two stories is struggle- trying to get out of a situation when you just cannot. In The Black Cat, the narrator tries to escape from the guilt of killing Pluto, but cannot, so he ends up killing his wife. He could not do anything to stop himself from behaving the way he did. This is extremely similar to The Fall of the House of Usher where Roderick Usher is trying to escape from the mental illness that he has. Asking his childhood friend to visit, he had hoped that it could help bring him out of his shell, maybe just miraculously cure him, but it does not. In the end, just like the narrator in The Black Cat, he ends up loosing something extremely precious- his life. Poe also uses Single Unifying Effect in both stories. Five examples of him using it in The Black Cat are: The voice from the tomb (the scream); the death of Pluto, his first cat; the ruining of his house; the murder of his wife and the image of the…
Pet owners love their pets, but never expect them to bring misfortune to them. In Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find and Edgar Allen Poe’s Black Cat we explore common themes of death through the owners cats. Both of these cats played a huge role resulting in the fate of their owners and the loved ones surrounded by them; they brought death and misfortune to them. They also share many similarities and differences we can find throughout each story. They differ between their importance to the story and are similar in representing death. Also both felines bring out characteristics of their owners that ultimately lead to their downfall. Both cats explore a common theme of death while sharing similarities and having their differences…