Essay: Comparison between "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart".
             Both stories present cases of premeditated murders and in neither of them there are good reasons for the crimes committed.
             In the "The Tell-Tale Heart" the only motivation for killing the old man was his deformed eye. It is impossible to say how the idea of murdering him first entered the mind of the narrator. There was no real motive as stated: "Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me....For his gold I had no desire. I think that it was his eye!" The narrator states that one of the old man's eyes was a pale blue color with a film over it, which resembled the eye of a vulture. Just the sight of that eye made the narrator's blood run cold, and as a result, the eye (and with it the old man) must be destroyed. Since the story is written in first person point of view, the protagonist is indirectly characterized. One must infer what he is like by what he says and does, although in this example the two are contradicting. The narrator insists that he is not insane. "Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded- with what caution, with what foresight, with what dissimulation I went to work!". Yet it is obvious by his actions- the fact that he murdered an innocent old man because of his "evil eye" - that he is neurotic and mentally imbalanced. The narrator's motivation for killing the man is notably obscure. "It is impossible to say how the first idea entered my brain... Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire."
             In "The Cask of Amontillado" Montresor, who vows revenge against Fortunato for an insult, tries to convince the reader that his intentions are honorable in an eff...