Comparing The Black Cat And The Tell-Tale Heart
"The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" some similarities. Some of them are comparing animals and animal characteristics. One major similarity is that both stories show an unreliable narrator and the theme is madness. I think of Poe as an unpredictable narrator.
Poe uses the unreliable narrator to force whoever is reading the story into thinking that he is crazy and unpredictable. In Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator compares animal features to things through his bad view of things. The narrator shows his fear by saying "vulture eye" to describe the old man's eye. The eye caused the narrator to kill the old man. Both of the stories include a murder and the body being hidden in the house.
In "The Black Cat," Pluto's damaged eye is the next
problem. His guilt at having so much anger at the cat that he blames for making him do it. Later on in the story the narrator gets another black cat and it’s missing an eye too. Another similarity between the two is that both of the narrators chose to hide their bodies in their home. The body of the old man is chopped up and hid under the floor, and the wife is chopped up in the wall of the basement. Both bodies 'reveal' themselves in strange noises. The narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" hears the beating of the heart, and in "The Black Cat," the narrator hears a bad squeal when he knocks on the wall for the police. The narrator accidentally locked the cat in the wall with his wife. I think both of the narrators loved their victims, but they both went insane and might have mental damage to their brain. Since they loved their victims, I think the narrator might regret their murders later on in their life. I think this because in “Tell- Tale Heart” the narrator says “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.” Also, in “The Black Cat” the narrator says “My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets.”
Poe uses the unreliable narrator to force whoever is reading the story into thinking that he is crazy and unpredictable. In Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator compares animal features to things through his bad view of things. The narrator shows his fear by saying "vulture eye" to describe the old man's eye. The eye caused the narrator to kill the old man. Both of the stories include a murder and the body being hidden in the house.
In "The Black Cat," Pluto's damaged eye is the next
problem. His guilt at having so much anger at the cat that he blames for making him do it. Later on in the story the narrator gets another black cat and it’s missing an eye too. Another similarity between the two is that both of the narrators chose to hide their bodies in their home. The body of the old man is chopped up and hid under the floor, and the wife is chopped up in the wall of the basement. Both bodies 'reveal' themselves in strange noises. The narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" hears the beating of the heart, and in "The Black Cat," the narrator hears a bad squeal when he knocks on the wall for the police. The narrator accidentally locked the cat in the wall with his wife. I think both of the narrators loved their victims, but they both went insane and might have mental damage to their brain. Since they loved their victims, I think the narrator might regret their murders later on in their life. I think this because in “Tell- Tale Heart” the narrator says “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.” Also, in “The Black Cat” the narrator says “My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets.”