ipl-logo

The Black Cat Comparative Essay

1776 Words8 Pages

Kavan Malaviya Mrs. Parcells ELA 6 15 February 2023 Comparative Essay Do Hook. Edgar Allen Poe explores how a guilty conscience cannot be ignored in his short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat.” “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story about a man who is frightened of his acquaintance's eye. This causes him to murder his acquaintance, and eventually confess his murder when he hears the heartbeat of the person he killed. On the other hand, “The Black Cat” is a short story about a man who develops a relationship with his cat. However, due to being intoxicated, he rips its eyes out in rage and hangs it soon after in regret. When a cat looking similar to his old cat (Pluto) appears, the man attempts to kill it, only killing his …show more content…

Poe uses figurative language to show why the narrator wants to kill the old man: “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe, par. 2). Saying that the eye is a vulture eye is a metaphor that suggests the eye is evil. This expresses the effects of the old man’s eye on the narrator and portrays what motivates the narrator to kill him. However, this act of murder in cold blood eventually leads the narrator to his downfall. After killing the old man, the narrator hides him in the floorboards of his house: “I took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly, that no human eye -- not even his -- could have detected anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out -- no stain of any kind -- no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that” (Poe, par. 15). By hiding the old man up under the floorboards, the narrator is trying to suppress and push back his guilt of killing the old man, essentially trying to ignore it. He also wants to avoid the potential outcome of being caught instead. However, due to a neightbor’s report, the police eventually come to the …show more content…

When the police arrive at the narrator’s house, the narrator acts as if nothing is wrong, ignoring the guilt of killing the old man. His overconfidence in concealing his murder is shown, as he even allows the police to stay with him in the room where he buried the dead old man: “In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim” (Poe, par. 17). The narrator feels as if he cannot possibly be caught, the murder seemed to be covered up

Show More
Related

Interprettive Essay: The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

728 Words | 3 Pages

“ The Tell-Tale Heart” Interpretive Essay Is the complex character created by Edgar Allan Poe a calculated killer or a delusional madman. In the short story “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character has a mental condition which causes him to kill a neighbor. He believes that his neighbor has a “vulture eye” which is the reason why he killed him. Night after night, he watches the man and plans how to kill him. Then one night, he puts his plan into action.

Read More

Examples Of Arrogance In The Masque Of The Red Death

1598 Words | 7 Pages

It was open --wide, wide open --and I [he] grew furious as I [he] gazed upon it. I [he] saw it with perfect distinctness --all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I [he] could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I [he] had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot (Poe, page 2).” For the reason being the main character is haunted by the old man’s eye, he becomes irate towards it.

Read More

Rhetorical Techniques In The Tell Tale Heart

434 Words | 2 Pages

The narrator believes himself to be very intelligent and clever when he goes into the old man’s room at midnight. Poe’s word choice of “caution” and “how wisely” represents the man’s view of his own sanity. Yet the act he performs and the reasoning behind his murderous intention convinces the reader that the narrator has lost his sanity. He plots and is driven to kill a man after claiming, “ I loved the old man.

Read More

Diction In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

678 Words | 3 Pages

The imagery that Poe uses creates an irrational tone full of anger. When he first sees the eye his “blood ran cold” and later when the old man moaned he, “knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although” he “chuckled at heart”. After the murder, the subject yells about the old

Read More

The Unreliable Narrator In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

882 Words | 4 Pages

To begin, the narrator cannot be trusted through his vague personality. The narrator claims, “And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he had passed the night” (Poe 626). The narrator mentions this the morning after the seventh night of stalking. In the wee hours of the morning, the narrator ever so cautiously enters the old man’s bedroom.

Read More

The Tell Tale Heart Insanity Essay

603 Words | 3 Pages

Cortney Leigh Mrs. Wenshau English 11 Block 1 2/10/23 Obsession; the Food of Insanity In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator is insane. Although there are a multitude of reasons as to why he is insane, one of the most prominent reasons is because the narrator is entirely incapable of telling right from wrong. From the beginning of the story, the narrator explains that his motive behind killing the old man is because he is haunted by the old man’s vulture-like eye. Essentially, the narrator justifies killing the old man by putting the blame onto the harrowing eyeball.

Read More

Examples Of Paranoia In The Tell Tale Heart

1164 Words | 5 Pages

The narrator 's sole reason for such murder is purely in his disturbed mind, as he develops an obsession with the old man 's eye and the plot unfolds from here where his insanity augments with the events of the story. Due to Poe’s illustrative language, various evidence can be presented to confirm the state of mind of the narrator, including, his obsession with the old man’s eye, his precision in committing the impeccable crime and finally the sound of the man’s beating heart solely inside his head. Perhaps it all started with the narrator’s obsession with the man’s “vulture eye” since he believes the eye of being evil, proving the insanity he is gravely trying to deny “I think it was

Read More

The Black Cat Vs The Raven

735 Words | 3 Pages

as Poe continues to show this hatred. He plans to kill the cat, but instead kills his wife, who stopped his axing blow from slaughtering the animal. In retaliation for killing Pluto and almost killing him again, the cat disrupts the narrator's masterplan by exposing the body of his deceased wife with his meowing

Read More

What Is The Mood Of The Tell Tale Heart

433 Words | 2 Pages

Poe states, “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution- with what foresight-with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than dur- ing the whole week before I killed him” (542). The author reveals the action by explaining to the reader that the unreliable narrator was very careful before killing the old man. The narrator thought every action through before he did it.

Read More

Tell Tale Heart Thesis

760 Words | 4 Pages

As a result, the narrator is insane and should not be prosecuted. To start off , the eye drove the narrator to insanity, which led him to take the life of the old man, The narrator does not know right from wrong. In the story, the narrator said that “For it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye”(Poe). This quote from the passage proves that he is insane because he is deciding to kill someone over his “vulture eye”. A sane person would realize that killing someone over a eye is a silly, wrong thing

Read More

How Does The Misfortune Of The Black Cat

211 Words | 1 Pages

There are few depressing events that occur during the course of the tale: for instance, the loss of the narrator’s former self, the abuse his other animals and wife, and his home due to the black cat’s occurring involvement. Despite the losses, however, the narrator surprisingly introduces a new black cat into his new home. The narrator thinks this will get rid of all his former dreadful memories and emotions of Pluto by introducing the new cat into his life, the narrator receives the exact opposite symbolizing the misfortune of the black cat have on the narrator. The text can provide evidence to this by stating “[t]his was just the reverse of what I had anticipated; but- I know not how or it – its evident fondness for myself rather disgusted

Read More

The Black Cat Research Paper

622 Words | 3 Pages

He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees -- very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe

Read More

Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

1109 Words | 5 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe made sure the reader knew more than the secondary character in his short story to build suspense. For the entire week before he murdered the old man, the main character crept into his bedroom every night, and observed the man while he slept. “I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in the bed… He was still sitting up in the bed, listening;--just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall.” From the beginning, the audience knew the man would be murdered, and the suspense built from this knowledge.

Read More

Theme Of Insanity In Gothic Literature

759 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator, after having already murdering the old man, explains why he is not mad for killing the man. In his words, “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body” (Poe 4). What the narrator later tells us was how he buried the body under floorboards. That emphasizes just how insane he is to believe that he himself really is not insane. The author is trying to get the readers to, in a way, to have fear and be on the edges of their seats because of this narrator.

Read More

The Tell-Tale Heart Insanity

796 Words | 4 Pages

The Narrator just happens to scream at the exact same time the old man does. After he commits the murder, the Narrator carefully cleans up. Once the police arrive at the house, they check everywhere, and find no trace of the old man. Yet, the Narrator claims to hear the beating of the old man’s heart “ it was a low, dull, quick sound - much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton”(Poe). There was no way for anyone else to hear this noise, because as stated before, the Narrator killed the old man.

Read More

More about The Black Cat Comparative Essay

Open Document