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Compare And Contrast The Black Cat And Rappaccini Daughter

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The Black Cat and Rappaccini’s Daughter Research Paper
At first sight, these two stories do not share much. One is about murder and violence, the other about two lovers. One is dark and quite frankly a little frightful, and the other story, although morbid, does not contain as horrific scenes as the other. One containing gruesome murders, and one with a suicide by poison. Both stories share a complex view of equanimity. Both stories encompass symbolism and death as a means of release. Both poetic, pithy. Both authors had their share of intimacy issues that shine throughout their works in different ways. Although not directly junctional to the orthodoxic views of the two short stories, I believe they are alike in this sense. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” share three common themes which include temptation, fulfillment, and corruption as well as both encompass allegorical content.
Firstly, both stories have a dimension of temptation interlaced into their plots. Temptation to give in to a certain stimulus. Temptation to skew reality to better fit their fantasies. In “The Black Cat”, the main character as a young child has a fondness for animals. He grows up and marries a woman who also shares an enthusiasm for animals. Soon, alcohol and violence tempt the main character. Poe writes, “… during which my general temperament and character-- through which the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance-- had (I blush to confess it)

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