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Similarities Between The Black Cat And William Wilson

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Similarities Between The Black Cat And William Wilson
“For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief.” In Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, he often uses the common gothic techniques of a grotesque character, guilt, and unreliable narrators to convey his story. Poe manipulates his settings and mood to create an uneasy and scared feeling within the reader. He also includes allusions to his own life which included alcoholism, gambling, and the many deaths of family members creating a personal tone to the stories. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe is a better horror story than William Wilson because of Poe’s use of techniques, setting, and mood.
To begin, The Black Cat and William Wilson both have similar gothic techniques including a grotesque …show more content…
The setting of The Black Cat has more meaning and depth to make it a better setting than the one in William Wilson. In The Black Cat, the setting takes place in two homes, places that should represent security, safety, and happiness. Poe’s use the basement where the narrator first walks down the steps is a representation of the narrator descending into madness. This sets the mood to feel unsafe, horrified and scared. In The Black Cat the narrator says, “I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain”(281). This quote makes the mood drop completely. In William Wilson, the setting takes place at many schools and different parts of the world. This takes away from the setting having an in-depth personal connection to the story. Having the setting in various places takes away from the eerie and creepiness of the overall story. In William Wilson the narrator says, “I fled again; he followed to the ends of the Earth I fled in vain”(8). This problem that the narrator faces makes the mood feel strange and odd because the narrator can't run away from the other William Wilson no matter how hard he tries to escape not because of the setting. Poe’s use of thought out settings helps create a different setting to fit each story's
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