Edgar Allen Poe, the master of short stories, filled his stories with mystery, death, anger, murder, and perverseness. Three of his stories that all contain these characteristics are “The Black Cat”, “Tell Tale Heart”, and “The Cast of Amontillado”. All three of these short stories share characteristics with each other that exemplify common themes that Poe writes about.
At the beginning of many of his stories, especially in “The Black Cat” and “Tell Tale Heart”, Poe includes a sort of disclosure from the narrator declaring or explaining something. In “The Black Cat” and “Tell Tale Heart”, there is an explanation of why the narrator isn’t crazy for what he eventually goes on to say he did. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the narrator makes a similar disclosure but this time explaining why he was murdering Fortunado in the first place. These explanations at the beginning of these stories are really interesting because they are walking the reader through these very logical, lucid points and you begin the story thinking the narrator is quite rational and clear headed. As you read the story and are a witness to the perverse crimes that the narrator commits, you question his sanity and you are conflicted with whether he is crazy or in fact as rational as he says he is. This is a very clever way of confusing the reader and giving the narrator some extra depth. In “The Cask of Amontillado” the narrator explains to the reader why he wants revenge on Fortunado and vaguely tells us that there were some injuries done unto him by Fortunado, and later insult on top of that. At the end of the story, however, when you realize that the narrator, Montresor, murders this man because of some injuries committed against him, you question whether he is sane or not.
Another theme that appears in all three of these stories is the perverseness of man. This theme is shown through the narrator’s actions in each of the stories and questions the reader whether this perverseness could be found in them, in all men. This “heart of darkness” or “perverseness” is found in “Tell Tale Heart” when the narrator kills the old man simply because his “evil eye” is bothering him. It’s also found in “The Black Cat” when the narrator cuts out the cat’s eye because he thought the cat had ignored him and then goes on to later kill his wife with an axe and buries her behind a wall of bricks. “Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man” (Poe, Black Cat). Poe suggests that this impulse to commit perverse acts is found in all men and it is only a matter of time before it is acted upon. This spirit of perverseness is also found in “The Cask of Amontillado” when the narrator, just like the one in “The Black Cat” murders his victim based only on a minor dispute and disposes of the body behind a brick wall.
Seeing that Poe was an alcoholic himself, it is no surprise that alcohol is found to affect many of the narrators in his stories. In “The Black Cat”, alcohol is what the narrator claims to have led him to cut the cat’s eye out and he used alcohol to drown his guilt of the occurrence. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, wine and alcohol is what eventually leads to Fortunato’s death. I feel that with Poe, he incorporates a lot of his ideas, thoughts, and problems into his stories and maybe even uses his stories to vicariously commit crimes or do things that he wouldn’t be able to do in reality.
At the beginning of many of his stories, especially in “The Black Cat” and “Tell Tale Heart”, Poe includes a sort of disclosure from the narrator declaring or explaining something. In “The Black Cat” and “Tell Tale Heart”, there is an explanation of why the narrator isn’t crazy for what he eventually goes on to say he did. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the narrator makes a similar disclosure but this time explaining why he was murdering Fortunado in the first place. These explanations at the beginning of these stories are really interesting because they are walking the reader through these very logical, lucid points and you begin the story thinking the narrator is quite rational and clear headed. As you read the story and are a witness to the perverse crimes that the narrator commits, you question his sanity and you are conflicted with whether he is crazy or in fact as rational as he says he is. This is a very clever way of confusing the reader and giving the narrator some extra depth. In “The Cask of Amontillado” the narrator explains to the reader why he wants revenge on Fortunado and vaguely tells us that there were some injuries done unto him by Fortunado, and later insult on top of that. At the end of the story, however, when you realize that the narrator, Montresor, murders this man because of some injuries committed against him, you question whether he is sane or not.
Another theme that appears in all three of these stories is the perverseness of man. This theme is shown through the narrator’s actions in each of the stories and questions the reader whether this perverseness could be found in them, in all men. This “heart of darkness” or “perverseness” is found in “Tell Tale Heart” when the narrator kills the old man simply because his “evil eye” is bothering him. It’s also found in “The Black Cat” when the narrator cuts out the cat’s eye because he thought the cat had ignored him and then goes on to later kill his wife with an axe and buries her behind a wall of bricks. “Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man” (Poe, Black Cat). Poe suggests that this impulse to commit perverse acts is found in all men and it is only a matter of time before it is acted upon. This spirit of perverseness is also found in “The Cask of Amontillado” when the narrator, just like the one in “The Black Cat” murders his victim based only on a minor dispute and disposes of the body behind a brick wall.
Seeing that Poe was an alcoholic himself, it is no surprise that alcohol is found to affect many of the narrators in his stories. In “The Black Cat”, alcohol is what the narrator claims to have led him to cut the cat’s eye out and he used alcohol to drown his guilt of the occurrence. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, wine and alcohol is what eventually leads to Fortunato’s death. I feel that with Poe, he incorporates a lot of his ideas, thoughts, and problems into his stories and maybe even uses his stories to vicariously commit crimes or do things that he wouldn’t be able to do in reality.
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