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Analysis Of ' The Tell Tale Heart '

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Oftentimes, the most truly despicable villains are marked with indifference towards their moral reprehensibility. “In the Penal Colony” and “The Tell Tale Heart” both elucidate the idea that corruption, darkness, and immorality alike are unperceivable to the one afflicted. However, while “In the Penal Colony” suggests that this blind nature is a result of dutiful honor, responsibility, and hope, “The Tell Tale Heart” alternatively submits that it is a result of the possibility of fulfillment. Distinction between both arguments is found in the way setting and atmosphere background the action. Both stories are vague in describing the general location and time of the action. Kafka, however, puts forth some effort in detailing the immediate setting in the scene. He establishes the story within a “deep”, yet, “small”, “sandy valley, closed in on all sides by barren slopes” (Kafka 75). Kafka also notes, “apart from the Officer and the Traveler there were present the Condemned…and The Soldier...” (Kafka 75). The valley is oxymoronically both “deep” and “small”. The uneven and odd composition highlights the peculiarity and alien quality the colony exudes to the Traveler and reader. All that stood out in the valley, both literally and figuratively, was what the Officer dubbed, “the apparatus” (Kafka 75). The Traveler is made utterly removed from the setting he enters. The isolation of the Traveler standing before the machine and three strangers perpetuates an atmosphere

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