Three Similar Edgar Allan Poe Stories
A comparison of The Tell Tale Heart, The Imp Of The Perverse and The Black Cat.
The Tell Tale Heart is far more well known and read than Edgar Allan Poe’s other stories The Black Cat and The Imp Of The Perverse but all three share very similar story lines that include the protagonist murdering someone then succumbing to what appears to be madness only to either lead to the discovery or confess their brutal deed.
The three protagonist all employ a similar way of telling their stories using a first person narrative and taking the reader through the beginning of their crimes all the way to their capture however the narrator of the Imp Of The Perverse begins with somewhat of an essay style to relay to the reader his theories on what he calls the imp of the perverse but eventually goes into narrative story telling of the crime like the others.
In the Tell Tale Heart and The Imp of the Perverse the narrator directly confesses to their act in desperation brought on by what can be assumed is madness. The Black Cat has a similar outcome but the narrator does not actually confess but instead is doing something similar to what the Tell Tale Heart narrator was doing by showing the police around where the body is hid only in this story it is a cat that reveals his not himself.
The time between the murderers getting caught varies a bit. The narrator of The Tell Tale heart is the quickest to be caught since it is the same night of the murder that he confesses. The black Cat Narrator is caught on the fourth day of the investigation. And the Imp Of the Perverse Narrator is not caught for years as he lets the guilt build up until he can no longer contain himself. The length of time before each is caught grows longer in order of release date though this could be coincidental.
Works Cited
(The Imp Of The Perverse) Edgar Allan Poe. 1845.
(The Tell Tale Heart) Edgar Allan Poe. 1843.
(The Black Cat). Edgar Allan Poe 1843.
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