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Analysis Of ' The Tell Tale Heart ' And ' Misery '

Decent Essays

Inheritance
The structure and ideals of how a short story should be created can be linked to two distinct authors: Poe and Gogol. When looking at these two authors’ works, one can tell that each has their own independent characteristics of a short story. Gogol’s short stories, as can be seen in his work “The Overcoat,” tend to be fairly long with a multiplicity of mood and drawn-out details. In contrast, Poe’s works, as seen in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” are much shorter, focused on a particular mood and direct. With this in mind, Chekhov’s short story “Misery” can be assessed to determine which model it follows. Although the two short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Misery” were written in two different countries, their structures are very similar. Overall, it seems that Chekhov’s “Misery” is a direct heir of Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” due to its structure, creation of a specific mood, and expression of human emotion.
Although many would argue that the work “Misery” is an heir of Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” its structure better resembles that of “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The first thing that can be assessed about “The Overcoat” is its sheer length. Although it is classified as a short story, it outnumbers “Misery” by a factor of five pages to one. If Chekhov wanted to closely resemble Gogol, he would have drawn out his work to make it more in-depth. He did not do this, and thus the story better matches the structure of Poe’s story. Also, the writer of “Poe on the Short Story”

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