Overwhelming obsession and guilt often lead to deadly consequences. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” Edgar Allan Poe introduces us to two men who each commit brutal murders motivated by an overwhelming obsession. The narrators differ in their dispositions but are victims of the same circumstances. The narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is proud of the cunning of his act and the fact that he is able to recount it with extreme calm despite his usually nervous state, whereas the narrator of "The Black Cat" is so horribly haunted by his guilt that he tries to erase the entire event from his memory. Even though the murders are very different – ​​one premeditated, the other provoked by passing rage – both narrators are haunted by their dark deeds. Due to the guilt these two men feel, they eventually give in to their self-destructive tendencies and bring about their own downfall. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In “Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator is characterized by his unconscious approach to his own madness. “In a vain effort to prove his sanity by detailing how carefully he planned this horrible act, the narrator makes it clear from the start that he is dangerously deranged” (Howard). Daring the reader to call him crazy only makes him seem crazier. He also makes it very clear that he has nothing but love in his heart for the old man, but that he was driven to this act "because he was tormented beyond distraction by the eyes of the old man. This shows that the narrator does not lack simple human compassion, but that his obsession with the "evil eye" drives him to madness. “On closer inspection, a sadomasochistic element appears” (Pritchard). The narrator decides to kill the old man and describes "with evident pleasure how calculatedly he set about doing it" (Howard). Even when he is about to kill the old man, he takes so much pleasure in the old man's fear that he "might very well have laughed." The reader is aware that the narrator has empathy for the man he is about to kill: "the old man groaned slightly and the narrator knew it was the sound of a person overcome by mortal fear , because he too had experienced this terror in the depths of the night. ". But the narrator goes on to say, "I knew how the old man felt and I pitied him, even though I had a little laugh in my heart." The pleasure-oriented nature of this narrator makes murder too easy With extreme calm, he dismembers the body and hides it under the floorboards, preventing anyone from knowing about the murder. However, like the narrator of "The Black Cat", he is unable to accept that he got away with it. and ultimately condemns himself. “The Black Cat,” much like “The Tell-Tale Heart,” deals with a narrator who struggles against deception, both of himself and of the reader “Despite the explicit assertion of the. narrator as to the reason in the first paragraph of the story, he immediately shows himself to be deceived by calling his story "a series of simple domestic events." He deceives himself by downplaying his wife's murder, while emphasizing cruelty to his favorite animal more than he can bear. The narrator begins his story by describing his early love for animals. “His first reference to admiring the “disinterested and altruistic love” of animals reveals the narrator's blindness; ironically, his contemptuous words, "the paltry friendship and vaporous loyalty of the simple man", apply to himself. This shows that, unlike the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart", hehas a deficit in human compassion and love. Although he refers to his love for his cat, he never mentions his love for his wife. Indeed, he admits “and vaguely perceives that he has lost the “humanity of feelings” that his wife has preserved”. Thus, the narrator's wife becomes a force for good that he must destroy. Furthermore, it seems that this narrator feels guilt and disgust at his act, even if he does not want to admit it to himself. "The importance or proportion of the story - the large number of words he devotes to cats contrasting with the brevity of his remarks about the mistreatment and murder of his wife - indicates the narrator's lack of insight and his feelings "He is blind to the fact that his guilt caused him to delay mentioning his greatest transgression, the murder of his wife, until the end. It is obvious that the guilt that the narrator does not allow himself to feel is why he cannot afford to commit the murder with impunity. “When the brick wall collapses, the black cat is found perched on the corpse's head, another clue to the narrator's guilt and its cause” (Prinsky). The narrator can't bear to relive what he did, so he breaks down and confesses all of this. Despite the great differences between the two narrators, they share a common characteristic: a suicidal or self-destructive nature. In "The Tell-Tale Heart", when the police are questioning the narrator and he is sure they have no idea what happened, "he then hears again what sounds a lot like the beating from the old man's heart, and he becomes very anxious, talking loudly and moving around the room, hoping the police won't hear the heartbeat." In his nervousness, he does not see that it is not the old man's heart, but his own that betrays him. Finally, overcome by guilt for what he had done, "he admitted his crime and exhorted them to tear up the boards and uncover this hideous heart." The narrator's suicidal nature is also reflected in his obsession with the eye: "The narrator destroys the 'evil eye,' thus ensuring his own destruction, or at least his incarceration. Also, as he murders the old man, he betrays himself by screaming. “Afraid that the neighbors would hear the increasingly loud heartbeat, the anxious maniac shouted as he bludgeoned the old man, and the neighbors certainly heard this” (Howard). The narrator seems to sabotage or punish himself because of the guilt he doesn't allow himself to feel. In "The Black Cat" the situation with a self-destructive narrator is very obvious. The events at the end are exactly the same as in "The Tell-Tale Heart": the police come to question him, the narrator is proud to be able to escape his crime thanks to the ruse of his concealment, and then there is the treason. "As the police prepare to leave the cellar, the narrator, apparently with mocking bravado but in reality with an unconscious guilt which seeks to delay them so that he can be arrested and punished, points out to them the solidity of the walls of the house, by hitting with a cane on the very spot of the hidden tomb The narrator, even if he does not immediately confess his crime, gives the police an additional chance to realize his act. somehow punishes himself for the many wrongs he has committed However, in the end, the narrator is still blinded because he cannot see that it was his own fault “Rationalizing until the end, the narrator. blames the cat for his misdeeds and captures: 'the hideous beast whose profession had led me to murder, and whose informative voice had delivered me to the executioner'” (Prinsky: this is not true). just a sample. Get a personalized article from our editors now=1.0>