Sympathy for the Devil: POE
"The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe are very similar. Both stories are written by Poe, and therefore share in a very similar writing style. They are both dark and disturbing tales. Both stories are told in first person, through the eyes of the killer. This technique helps to include the audience in the story. The killers in both stories premeditate the murders of a seemingly innocent person. Also similar is the methods used to conceal the evidence of the crime. What then makes one so much different from the other? Poe induces more sympathy from the reader for Fortunato by creating a more personal relationship with the victim in "The Cask of Amontillado." There are differences in the mental states of the killers, and how they are presented to the audience. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the killer is engulfed with revenge. He fills his victim has wronged him and he is executing appropriate justice. The killer, Montresor, is very calm and calculating throughout. He does not waiver from his plan of action. Montresor is also very confident in his plan to murder Fortunato. In fact, he is so secure in himself he offers his victim a number of chances to
Stirring emotions in a reader is important in writing a horror story. " The deformed eye of his victim drove him mad. In "The Cask of Amontillado," even though the Montresor is telling the story, Fortunato is also given dialogue. The reader knows more about the victim, and therefore can sympathize more toward him. From the time he first conceived the idea for murder, he was overcome with guilt. It shows what fantastically talented writer Poe truly was. He did not murder Fortunato with his bare hands, like in "The Tell-Tale Heart. While it is easy for a reader to have pity for an "innocent" old man, it is not so easy to have sympathy for a character that is given no personality. Montresor is seemingly gratified by the fact that his victim refuses to turn away from certain doom. The old man has only one line, "Who's there?" before he is killed. This only leads the reader to believe the opposite. For a reader to feel for a character in a story, he or she must first know who they are having emotions towards. The fact that Montresor also took a more hands-off approach to the crime reflects a great deal about his personality. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator tells the reader many personal thoughts, but little about the victim apart from his deformed eye. Even though he went through great difficulties concealing the crime, he confessed in the end.
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Acceptance Essays
