Comparing The Tell-Tale Heart 'And' The Monkey's Paw

“Sometimes painful things can teach us lesson we didn’t think we needed to know.” This is an example of the stories; The Monkey’s Paw and Tell-Tale Heart. The story, The Monkey’s Paw, tells you about an old friend of Mr. White coming to visit him and his family. He shows them the monkey’s paw and tells them that it can grant you three wishes. They take it even though the friend warns them not to and the results aren’t what they expected. The story, Tell-Tale Heart, tells you about the narrator who is plotting to kill an old man with the “vulture eye”. The narrator doesn’t realize that what he’s done will cost him. Although The Monkey’s Paw and Tell-Tale Heart stories may be different, they are also very similar

In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Edgar Allan Poe illustrates how obsession can quickly turn into madness and destroy its victim and those connected to them. The narrator tries to convince us that he is in full control of his thought yet he is experiencing a condition that causes him to be over sensitive. Throughout the story we can see his obsession proving his insanity. The narrator claims that he can be a bit anxious and over emotional, he is not insane. He tries to give proof this through the calmness of his tone as he tells this tale. He then explains how although he has much love for an old man who has always treated him kind, he

Both stories that are used for this essay have a few things in common. The characters in each story get so overwhelmed with the idea of self-satisfaction that they ignore the potential consequences that will come from their actions. As an example, in “The Monkeys Paw”, Mr. And Mrs. White are warned about the consequences that The Paw could cause, but instead, they still choose to overlook the consequences which leads to the loss their son’s life. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the Narrator is overwhelmed with the desire for self-satisfaction so much that he doesn’t see that his actions could impact many people and even make himself realize he made a terrible mistake. Because of this, in both “The Monkeys Paw” by W. W. Jacobs and “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the readers are left in suspense when the characters receive major consequences as a result of their selfish actions because it was not expected that such small acts could cause such great consequences.

The “Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Monkey’s Paw” both convey suspicion and growing fear of what will happen “The Monkey’s Paw” is about a monkey’s paw that grants three wishes, but in the worst way. The “Tell-Tale Heart” is about a man who murders an old man, but his guilty conscience betrayed him by making him hear the old man’s heart after he died. "The Monkey's Paw" creates suspense through a slow paced timeline, and "The Tell-Tale Heart" creates suspense throughout the plot, the murder, and finally the heart beating after death causing him to surrender and confess.

My old English teacher, Mrs. Horne, was a very clever person. I had no other teacher like her. On the second week of school I saw something bizarre with her appearance! When she was lecturing in class one day I looked up and one of her eye balls was looking straight at me and the other one right at the book that we were discussing in class. It would leave me with goosebumps everywhere on my arms. Also I would sometimes catch her talking to herself alone! Whenever I catch her talking to herself I would quickly run away with fear. This really frightened me and thought that her defected eye was talking to her. Just thinking about this caught my eye because in the story “The Tell Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator has a demon manifesting his thoughts and he wants to take the old man’s life away because of his pale blue vulture eye.

Salvador Dali once said “There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.” The personality of the main character in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is that of a madman even though he is in denial about it. The narrator tries to show this through examples. Poe suggests that the main character is crazy by narrator’s claims of sanity, the narrator’s actions, and the narrator hears things that are not real.

“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe the student becomes obsessively pushing his need for self-torture to the extreme. To become more sorrow, he calls for the bird to hear only one response to become morself-tortured.

To begin with, the Tell Tale Heart is very odd and suspenseful. It and the rewritten version are very different, and though they are both very descriptive, only one can help a reader understand the plot more. The original would be better because it tells you the narrator’s thoughts about why he wants to kill the old man, while the rewritten version, no matter what point of view, happens after the murder and would not help the reader understand the thoughts of the narrator.

When comparing Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” with W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw”, I find the ‘The Tale Tell Heart” to best represent the horror genre because of the use of the point of view of a crazy person. The narrator’s way of telling the story lets you infer that something bad will happen. The story is so suspenseful because the narrator is a madman who cannot be trusted. The way the author frequently repeats words increases the suspense, makes it sound scarier and more mysterious. In the article “What is a horror genre?” written by Sharon A. Russell, she tells us that our knowledge of a genre creates suspense because we can anticipate what is going to happen (Russell 37). When the narrator mentions that he suffers from a disease

The Monkey’s paw by W. W. Jacobs is an eerie short story about a son who dies in a horrific way and a family who wants to bring him back. It focuses on an enchanted monkey’s paw that grants three wishes. The paw was enchanted by an old fakir that wanted to prove that fate controlled life and going against it would only lead to regret and sorrow. This plot point can be noted as an underlying theme, but the main theme is “be careful what you wish for, because you might get it”. While this story is superb, a question comes to mind: Would could be learned from this short story?

Throughout both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” the reader is able to pick up similarities as well as differences between the narrators in both stories.

Looking at “The Tell Tale heart” and “The Monkey’s Paw” both have similar on self-hatred leads to bad incidents. Edgar Poe wrote “The Tell Tale Heart” for others to see how something simple as a murder can it huge. W.W. Jacobs wrote “the monkey paw” for others to get that suspense on how it can change very easily. Suspense means waiting at the edge of the chair for something to pop out and spook a person. Self - Hatred brings out the worse in people.

(Jacobs, 2015,pg 25). This alerts the reader about the up-coming unfortunate fate of the White family. When Morris arrives, he brings a mysterious mummified monkey's paw, which grants three wishes. According to Morris, monkey's paw has a spell put on it by a fakir, who wanted to show that "fate ruled people's lives and those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow".(Jacobs, 2015,Pg 25). The whole story is built upon this quote by Morris.

     In Edgar Allan Poe’s short-story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the storyteller tries to convince the reader that he is not mad. At the very beginning of the story, he asks, "...why will you say I am mad?" When the storyteller tells his story, it's obvious why. He attempts to tell his story in a calm manner, but occasionally jumps into a frenzied rant. Poe's story demonstrates an inner conflict; the state of madness and emotional break-down that the subconscious can inflict upon one's self.

Edgar Allen Poe has created many stories that are dark, suspenseful, and murderous such as The Tell- Tale Heart and The Black Cat. His works tend to resemble one another in style, mood, theme, and plot. The ways in which these elements are displayed show contrast between the two. The Tell- Tale Heart and The Black Cat are two brutal tales with similar themes about being insane. Both stories are told from the first person point of view with a maniacal narrator.