Similarities Between The Tell Tale Heart And The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe is, by far, one of the most influential gothic writers. He hides many symbols and themes in his work. He also makes the point of view very clear. “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” are both stories about two men who are a little bit mentally ill and they are both currently in some type of jail. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator ends up killing the old man he said that he “loved” and in “The Black Cat” the narrator kills the cat that he “loved”. These two stories are both very similar and different when it comes to symbols, themes, and point of view. Symbolism is crucial in a story. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” one symbol was the floorboards. His writing states, “I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings,” (Poe 5). This marks the death spot of the old man, and this will soon come back to haunt the narrator. In “The Black Cat” another symbol was the wall where

One of “The Tell-Tale Heart”’s themes is guilt will always be a dominant feeling inside you. The text describes, “I shrieked, ‘Dissemble no more! I admit the deed!---tear up the planks!---hear, here!---it is the beating of his hideous heart!’” (Poe 6). In this excerpt the narrator is having the guilt overcome him and he forced himself to tell the police that he committed murder. “The Black Cat” has a similar theme of the truth will always come to the surface, whether you like it or not. The text expresses, “In the next, a dozen arms were toiling at the wall. It fell bodily.” (Poe 18). In this section the narrator was, boldly, telling the police officers that he loved the wall that had his wife’s corpse inside it. These two themes are similar in the way of cockiness overcoming the narrators, giving the police the opportunities to arrest them, but they are different due to the reason that the narrator in “The Black Cat”, wasn’t feeling guilt for what he had done, resulting in him having no