Comparing The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart Essay

During his lifetime, Edgar Allen Poe wrote a number of short stories. In many of his works, such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado, there are many similarities. They are comparable through the narrative, story, and mood of the stories. The narrators in both works of literature prove to be similar in many ways. Both are murderers and tell their story in a first person point of view, and they take very careful caution so that they would not get caught. Also, both stories deal with very dark and scary mood. Both works of literature, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado, corroborate Poes similarities in writing short stories. However, his short stories also have many obvious differences such as details in stories and the endings of the stories.

The differences in particular parts of stories of The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart such as motive allow the readers to have different points of view in two similar stories. First, the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart has an unknown name, and it provides a sense of mystery. In contrast, the murderer of The Cask of Amontillado has an exact name, Montresor. Also, the murderer of each story is motivated to murder differently. While the murder in The Cask of Amontillado is driven by pure, old-fashioned revenge and jealousy, the character in The Tell-Tale Heart is motivated by his own insanity. As the narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart reveals, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever (Poe 3). The murderer does not like the old mans staring and vacant eye. It is the only reason he killed the old man. On the other hand, Montresor, the murderer in The Cask of Amontillado, features cautious revenge for Fortunado because of insulting that Montresor had received from him over the years. Both The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart treat the same topic, murder, but they give quite different moods by making differences in details of stories.

Also, the ends of The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart are opposed to each other. The narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart focuses more on his madness than murder at the end of the story as he did at the first. Also, he confesses his sin because he could not stand the guilt anymore. As the murderer of The Tell-Tale Heart indicates, I admit the deed! it is the beating of his hideous heart! (Poe 8). He heard his heart beating, and it shows that he is extremely nervous. Although he repeatedly states that he is not insane, the readers suspect otherwise from his strange reasoning, behavior, and speech. Also, the readers can see through Poes description of the narrators state of mind that is unstable, and this unsettled mind leads the narrator to confess his guilt. On the other hand, in The Cask of Amontillado, the murderer uses the measured and careful plan, and he accomplishes his plan without any fault. As Montresor proves, I hastened to make an end of my labor (Poe 24). Montresor does not show any tension or nervous feeling while he kills and buries Fortunado. Differently from the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart, Montresor was motivated by jealousy and anger, and it made him commit murder perfectly. These two different ends make the stories differ from each other.

The motives and the ending of The Tell-Tale Heart are quite random and distracted. The narrator keeps telling that he is not insane, and his motivation to murder is not reasonable. Although he planned murder perfectly, he was not discreet enough. In contrast, the end of the story and motive of The Cask of Amontillado indicate a more logical and more thoughtful narrator, even though he is a murderer. In addition, these facts make the mood of the story more serious and scarier. The differences in details of the stories also lead them to have different endings. Like the details, the ending of The Tell-Tale Heart shows that the murderer is very nervous and has an unstable state of mind. The ending reveals more about the narrator than what he actually did. However, the narrator in The Cask of Amontillado assures that he killed Fortunato and buried him at the end of the story. These primary elements of stories such as motivation and the ending make huge differences in Poes works of literature.

Although Poe uses similar techniques of writing in many stories, such as narration, psychology, and mood, which make his stories very compatible, he differentiates all of his works by giving them many small differences. Both the details and the ending of the stories are the obvious differences between The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart. The details and ending of The Tell-Tale Heart indicate narrators insanity and unsettled state of mind while those of The Cask of Amontillado focus more on a logical, prudent mind and measured plan. Two similar, but clearly different stories of Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado, confirms Poes techniques and styles in writing by revealing similarities and differences.