Question

compare and contrast Edgar Allen Poe's two stories, (The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell Tale Heart)

Answer 1

In "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado," both stories are told from the perspective of narrators who may be considered unreliable in their presentation of reality. Both stories feature bizarre murders in which the narrators attempt to justify and rationalize the killings.

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the increasingly desperate narrator attempts to convince the reader that the old man had an air of sinisterness about him, via an "evil eye," that justifies the murder. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the narrator, Montresor, also provides vague reasoning for murdering his foe by explaining that Fortunato was not genuine in his interactions with Montresor. In both stories, the victims are hidden in the houses in which they were murdered. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the victim is chopped up and hidden in the floorboards. In "The Cask of Amontillado," Fortunato is walled up in the catacombs of Montresor's estate.