Tell Tale Heart vs. the Black Cat Essay Example

Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be one of the greatest American writers of all time. His writing is dark and sinister. He wrote of death, murder, psychosis, and obsession. One could only imagine what would bring a person to write such morbid stories. Perhaps, it may be attributed to Poe’s childhood, a past that was sad and far from average. Both of his parents died when he was only three years of age (Shelley). The death of his parents caused a separation from his siblings and he moved to live with his relatives (Shelley). In later years, Poe endured poverty and the loss of his wife-to-be to another man (Clark). Possibly, without those troubling experiences, Poe couldn’t have imagined such eerie and enthralling tales. Some of his most acclaimed and well-known works are “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” These are stories based on characters that go insane over obsession involving an eye. Both characters have a relentless urge to kill. And, both of the murderers stuff the dead bodies into the foundation of a house. The main characters are questioned by the police and in a fit of lunacy, they admit their guilt. In “The Black Cat,” a man develops a volatile temper and an extreme dislike for all living things. He and his wife had many pets, but one black cat stood out from the rest. Its name was Pluto. It was the man’s favorite playmate for many years; but eventually, he began to feel deeply annoyed by all of his animals. So much so, that he neglected and abused them. But, his cat Pluto was different. It never received the mistreatment that the others did. According to the man, when his rage and intolerance grew too strong, Pluto could sense it and knew to keep its distance. One night, when the man returned home from a night of heavy drinking, “the fury of a demon” (Poe 706) possessed him. He grabbed the cat by its throat and “deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe 706). Still unsatisfied, the man hung the cat from a tree, to be