Essay Comparing Tell-Tale Heart And Go To The Grave

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Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Tell Tale Heart” and Nathaniel Hawthorne's poem “Go To The Grave” both demonstrate ideas on religion and faith. Both “The Tell Tale Heart” and “Go To The Grave” touch on the subject of death. They are both in the gothic genre. “The Tell Tale Heart” and “Go To the Grave” both have religious concepts involved. The Tell Tale Heart touches on guilt a lot. In the Holy Bible, we learn about the first case of guilt known to man. In Genesis 3, we learn about the account of Adam and Eve and how they were filled with guilt. God directly told Adam and Eve “Thou may eat of any tree, except one.” The serpant temps Eve to eat of the forbidden tree, who then temps Adam to disobey God as well. At this point, they start experiancing guilt, just as the unnamed man did in “The Tell Tale Heart”. Genesis 3:7 reads “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” They were left guilty and naked before God, so they tried to cover it up by clothing themselves in fig leaves. This is very similar to the man the “The Tell Tale Heart” who kills the old man. “Go To The Grave” also has a religious take. The poem talks about how everything comes to an end, but it is not to fear. The author believes in life after death, and the Great Maker. There is a line in “Go To The Grave” that reads “Yet do not …show more content…

They both have a darker appeal to them. These writers are well known for famous “gothic” poems and short stories. “The Tell Tale Heart” and “Go to the Grave” both have many things in common with each other, as we have discovered. Today we have learned though they both have a dark nature, there is a deeper meaning to them than meets the eye. Though at first glance, both are pretty dark and twisted, when you analyse the poems, there is something beautiful about