Hearts and Catacombs

Edgar Allen Poe wrote two amazing short stories featuring crazed men killing other men; these are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” There are many aspects of each story that can be compared and contrasted to the other, including the personalities of the murderers and of the victims, the motives behind each murder, and the symbolism hidden throughout each.

The personalities of the murderers seem to be quite different, one man is seen as a complete lunatic from the beginning of the story and the other as quite collected. These men are, however, more alike than the reader discerns from a brief first reading, though there are substantial differences between them. The first example of a similarity is that they both behave towards their victims as benign friends, as they carry out their malicious plans. Montressor, narrator of “The Cask of Amontillado,” leads his victim, Fortunato, to his family’s catacombs, carrying on what Fortunato believes to be friendly conversation and asking all the while whether he is sure that he wants to journey further, eliminating any qualms that might arise. The narrator, whose name is never given, of “The Tell-Tale Heart” behaves in much the same way, taking care of his elderly victim during the daylight hours so as to not cause suspicion. Ultimately, they both take their victims by surprise, though Fortunato had to endure several minutes knowing he would die. The belief that one man was any more mentally ill than the other is based on the narration of their stories. Montressor tells his story calmly, while the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” carries an excited tone and denies being a madman, therefore being assumed to be such by the reader. The reason for this difference may be that while Montressor refers to his audience in a familiar way, saying at one point that the audience knows him well, the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” seems to be telling his story to whomever will listen, and perhaps to no one in particular. However, both men are in poor mental health. Another similarity comes after the murders, they both experience guilt for what they have done. Montressor actually becomes physically sick immediately after laying the last brick in the wall shutting his victim from the outside world. He then goes to the site over the period of years between the murder and the telling of his story, to ensure no one has discovered his crime but also to masochistically remind himself of his guilt. The narrator from “The Tell-Tale Heart” does not feel guilt immediately after the murder, as he sets out to hide the body. However, after the realization of what he has done sinks in and he is near to the floorboards under which his victim’s body lays, he begins to hear the beating of a heart and confesses his crime to the police in order to stop the noise. The imaginary sound is brought on by the unconscious guilt he feels for having killed a man he initially “loved,” though he is too far from sanity to know this. Both men deny their feelings of guilt by blaming them on forces beyond their control, in one case, the nitre, and in the other, a loud heartbeat. Despite the many similarities one may now see between the two murderers, it must be acknowledged that there are also significant differences. The first of these is the social station each man occupies. Montressor is a wealthy Italian man who has servants, wine, and a family home with catacombs, which store dead relatives and murder victims, beneath it. The narrator from “The Tell-Tale Heart” is perhaps a relative of the victim, referred to as the old man, but seems to assume the position of caretaker in a house void of any other servants, giving him a lower station than that which Montressor occupies. Another difference is the methodical murders actually committed. Whereas Montressor commits his crime by luring Fortunato down to his family’s catacombs on Carnival night in order to seal him behind a newly built wall, the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” goes to his victim’s bedchamber every night for a week before he finally attacks the old man and crushes his body with his own heavy bed. Of course, the period immediately after death is much more gruesome in “The Tell-Tale Heart” because the victim is dismembered and hidden under floorboards whereas the hiding of the corpse in “The Cask of Amontillado” involves sealing the wall behind which it lies.

The victims of these two stories do not share as many similarities as do the murderers, partly because their personalities are never fully developed because the story is told in the form of a narration by the murderer. However, some comparisons may be made. For instance, both victims, Fortunato and the old man, are completely unsuspecting of their seemingly well-meaning friends and are taken by surprise. Both are also in ill health, the old man being elderly and unable to care for himself, and Fortunato