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Similarities Between The Tell Tale Heart And The Minister's Black Veil

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The Sins Within
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe and
“The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathanial Hawthorne “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, cost you more than you want to pay,” by unknown. The life of sins are revealed in both “The Tell- Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe and in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”. Beginning with “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Poe there is this man watching over an old man that he loves dearly, but cannot seem to do right by. Everyday he would stare into this old man’s pale blue eye with the thought that he was haunting him. When the man would go to sleep at night he would sneak into his room just to check if the eye was still watching it, but …show more content…

In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Poe the narrator feels the need to justify his reasoning for being bothered by the old man’s eye. He knows this is wrong, but in his mind if he justifies it and actually makes sense then it is okay. “Whenever it fell upon on 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 this rid myself of the eye forever.” Poe. This sounds very devious and selfish right? The man knows this and feels bad for not liking the man’s eye, but believes his reason makes it okay. “It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.” Poe. The beating of the heart began to make him angry. It added to the fuel because he could he the fear. He knew the man was awake and looking around in the dark hoping to catch him standing in his doorway. The thought of the eye being open completely bothered him and he just snapped. Before he snapped he needed to justify his reasoning within himself. He needed something to blame it on; therefore he blamed it on the beating of the old man’s heartbeat. The narrator shows the most guilt toward the end of the story though. “But anything was better than this agony.” Poe. After he killed the old man his conscience ate away at him so bad that he could not take it anymore. He could not hold the pain of guilt. He felt like he was being punished. “Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! Even though the police officers were having regular conversation he felt as though they knew what he had done. He felt like they were plotting against him and using their smiles to make him think otherwise. Police officers often use tactics that would make their suspect think that they are their friend he believed they were pretending.“ Almighty God! –No,

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Imagine darkness, sin, and the desire to keep it all hidden from yourself and the outside world. Together Poe and Hawthorne paint this picture of traits which consist of suspense and darkness. Within the stories “Tell Tale Heart” and “Ministers Black Veil”, the two authors writing styles are vividly comparable. With the comparison of these short stories, it becomes more than feasible to feel the true emotion and movement that Poe and Hawthorne wished to give to their readers.

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American Romanticism has been around for many years now. Many authors expand their ideas to make the story more interesting. It is a form to express themselves as writers. American Romanticism contains many characteristics such as intuition, imagination, and exaggeration. The Minister’s Black Veil demonstrates all these characteristics in the story.

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People hide their true emotions on the inside. This theme is clear when Mr. Hooper is talking to his wife about the veil in “The Minister’s Black Veil.” “‘If I hide my face from sorrow, there is cause enough,’ he merely replied; ‘and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?’” In this scene, Mr. Hopper tells that he is hiding his sorrow behind the black veil. That shows that people hide their true emotions inside and do not show them to others.

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The evidence states that he doesn’t know how or why he hates the old man’s eye, he says “It is impossible to say how the idea first entered my brain; but once conceived it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.

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In the “Tale-Tell Heart”, by Edgar Allen Poe syntax, imagery and personification are employed to reveal that the protagonist is a mentally insane man who killed his neighbor to get rid of his “Vulture” eye. The story goes on to unveil that the killer eventually felt remorse for the crime he just committed and confessed to the police. Syntax was utilized to show how when the killer got excited more anxious he became more intense, therefore how he spoke become very short and choppy. It can be shown as early as in the first paragraph. ‘True-- nervous--very,very dreadfully nervous’ It has been proven that when someone is being honest about events that they can tell the story in a calm manner.

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This is exactly the reason the narrator has killed the old man, because of his “evil eye”. Not only is this ridiculous on its own, but the narrator directly states that he loved this man. “I loved the old man. He had never wronged

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The man says, “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing.” Tying in with the arrogant tones as well, the man has a very dark mind and the readers get a glimpse of his thought train through first person. He explains he needs to “take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” No sane person would kill over a color of an eye, but as he describes the old man’s eye, the audience begins to understand why he takes the life of the old man.

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Almighty God - no, no! They heard! - they suspected! - they knew! - they were making a mockery of my horror!” This is showing how nervous the narrator felt when the police officers came to make sure everything was normal.

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The major theme in “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is that everyone has sins or sorrows they try to hide but can’t never escape. For instance, Elizabeth claims the Minister “hides his face under the consciousness of secret sin”. This statement shows she’s determined he wears the black veil; to hide his immoral actions. We all have secrets and sins we try to hide from one another, as well as ourselves. Later, the Minister asks to “to not be left alone in the miserable obscurity forever”.

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There are times in life where people do commit a small mistake, or a huge crime, but what really matters is if one will listen to their conscience. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character lives with an old man who has an eye that “resembled that of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” The story revolves around the main character’s obsession over the eye, and how he got rid of it-- by murdering the old man. Towards the end of the story, the young man confesses to the police about his insane stunt after they searched his house. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe focused on having the reader know more than the secondary character, using description, and using a first-person narrator, to build suspense.

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Every day and night that the eye would haunt him, he would receive a better understanding to how he will overcome the eye. An obsession begins as a thought about someone or something, which is what happens to the narrator, the thought of the eye is the beginning of his obsession for it. The author satisfies his obsession “every night, about midnight” by “turning the latch” of the old man’s door and peeking his head through (3.4-7). By doing so, he got to take a look at the old man’s pale blue eye. To the narrator this eye stimulates an unhealthy obsession.

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In The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe the narrator is guilty of murder because the narrator thinks the old man could never suspect that his caregiver would ever try to kill him, he claims he can recite the story calmly and healthily as he remembers every detail unlike an insane person , and he admits to killing the old man so he is aware he has committed murder. It is important to realize that the narrator is too presumptuous because the old man would never think his caregiver would try to kill him when he expresses this statement “So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that at every night, Just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.’’ ( Poe 7).

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The narrator is emotionless throughout the story, as he plans for a long time, the perfect moment to take the man’s life. He felt pride in taking the old man’s life. But after the police arrives to investigate the house; he starts to hear “beatings of his hideous heart” (Poe 5). As the dreadful sound of the deceased man’s beating heart grew louder and louder, he starts feeling the guilt. Guilt is the motif in the

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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

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No sane person would think of doing such a thing, they would just avoid seeing the old man. Instead, the narrator chooses to kill the old man which does not make sense to the average, but to him, this is the only way to relieve himself of the eye. As the narrator craziness increases throughout the story, one can see how the eye of the old

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