An appreciation of ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe and ‘The Confession’ by Charles Dickens Essay

This assignment asks for an appreciation of the stories by Edgar Allen Poe The Tell Tale Heart and Charles Dickens The Confession. I will start by exploring Edgar Allen Poes account and style of writing, how it captivates the reader, building suspense and terror. I will then explore Charles Dickens ConfessionAnd last following my analysis of the two stories I will compare and contrast the different styles.Edgar Allen Poes story The Tell Tale Heart describes how the perpetrator plans and executes a vicious attack on an centenarian humanness. This story is told in an autobiographical format with the author describing his state of mind, questioning his own sanity. He calmly describes how at that place was no object or passion that ca economic consumptiond him to endow the heinous act of murder as he describes his love for the old man. His only explanation is his dupes philia which he describes as vulture like and intimidating. He disassociates the eye from the old man and it is the eye that drives him to commit the crime.He talks of his dissimulation in cooking the old mans death and how e treated him during the week prior to killing him, how he taunted him, stalked him, and preyed upon him at midnight (witching hour), this sinister act of voyeurism is grim and adds to the tension of the story. It was only until the seventh night when he realised that to rid himself of the Evil Eye he need to have the old mans eye open to commit the act.On the eighth night he describes how he carefully taunts the old man describing his actions as clever and skilled, hysteria sets in and finds the events exhilarating, which is further compounded by his knowledge that the old man was fearful of intruders and robbers to realise the real danger is from within. He describes the fear and panic the old man is experiencing when he hears someone in his room, he goes on to empathise and understand how the old man is rationalising for the noise he heard.The author gives a descripti on of a Grim Reaper, stalking in the shadows and enveloping the victim. He builds suspense and describes the web that hes weaving to rid himself of the vulture eye. He describes seeing the eye as freezing him and bringing his focus purely on the eye completely detaching the old man from the eye. He recalls comprehend the old mans heart beating like a drum It was a low, dull, quick sound- oftentimes such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. His acuteness of hearing increases the loudness of the heart beat its then he describes nervousness mixed with excitement.Its with this increasing loudness that he fears he will by heard by neighbours that he enters the room dragging the old man to the floor pulling the mattress on top of him, where as the heart beat becomes muffled and finally stops. He describes the man as cosmos stone dead and not troubling him any longer. In the last(a) paragraphs he talks of how he concealed the body, dismembering the body cutting off the old mans head and limbs and depositing them under the floor boards, believing himself to be clever. However the actions at such early hours raised suspicions. This brought three policemen knocking at the door, alerted by a neighbour hearing a shriek, in the mettle of the night.The liquidator invited the policemen in to search the house and take a rest from their duties. He showed his boldness, by placing the chairs above where he concealed the body. It was then he describes hearing a ringing much the same as the beating of the heart. He describes it as catching his breath, in fear that the officers also heard the beating. His anxiety increase and his paranoia set in. With the policemen not making a move to go he feared that they had heard the beating, it was so loud to him he thought they were bound to hear it and that he confessed to committing the deed and exposed the body to the police. at that place the story ends and we can only guess at the murderers sentence.The ConfessionThis is an autobiographical story which takes places in a retrospective view of the authors life. This is a story that tells a acknowledgment of a condemned man.He talks of his electric shaverhood where he is victim to his own low self esteem with a few friends and his relationship with his brother. He is extremely jealous of his sibling because he perceives him as better than him He was open-hearted and generous, handsomer than I, more accomplished, and generally beloved his friends and acquaintances would say they were surprised to find two brothers so unlike in their manners and appearance. Then it tells of how his brother has been taken with(p) with a terminal illness.He talks of his marriage to his brothers sister-in-law and describes this additional tie as estranging them further. He disliked his sister-in-law for he matt-up she could see through him, and see his jealousy, and so he could not meet her eyes but felt hers constantly digging into him. Only relieved by a quarrel, and h er subsequent death, she both frightened and haunted him. She died shortly after her birth of her son. And on his brothers death bed the child was lay in his care and should the child die all property and possessions pass onto to his wife. With a few brotherly words with me, deploring our long separation and being exhausted, discharge into a slumber, from which he never awoke. The author talks of his own childless relationship and how his wife took the place of the childs mother. It was the childs crushed leather with his wife that he piece disturbing as within him he saw his natural mothers intuition, her face and her spirit which caused him to mistrust the male child to the point of obsession.He increasingly become uneasy in the childs presence, he showed him fear and hate. The boy kept his distance whenever possible. He could not recall when these feelings came upon him and initially he wished the child no ill. The thoughts crept upon him until they overtook his whole though t patterns. He describes uneasiness when in the childs focus, he become fixated on how easy it would be to kill the child. He began stalking the child, watching him, undertaking his tasks. As in the Tell Tale Heart this unhealthy voyeurism is vividly draw to great effect- I never could bear that child should see me in the Confession and a pale blue eye, with film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my credit line ran cold in a Tell Tale Heart.He goes on to describe how he grooms the child by modelling a model gravy boat and waiting for him to go to the river to float it where he had planned to carry out the crime. He describes how he waited for three twenty-four hourss until the child went to the river and when he was about to commit the crime the child saw his shadow in the water. It was as if the childs mothers eyes were starring back at him. In a moment incapacitated in time the author appears to have mixed recollections of the event, one the child running for escape and the other when he is confronted with the childs dead body lying at his feet stabbed by his sword.With his wife away from home he planned to bury the child in the tend and he became obsessed by the murder he committed. He talks of his feigned distress at being told the child was missing and how he had to mute the news to his wife. He carried out the actions of a grieving parent raising no suspicions whilst all day long watching the new turf being laid hoping to add speed to the process. He talks of disturbed sleep, waking from nightmares and constantly needing re-assurance and thus I spent the night in fits and starts, getting up and lying down full twenty times, and dreaming the same dream over and over again, he became paranoid and terrorised by his actions, fearful of discovery he started to hear whispers on the wind- a breath of air sighed across it, to me it whispered murder.This increased his fear. Then he goes on to describe how on the fourth day visitors from his earlier reg iment called upon him. He invited them into the garden and set the chairs out on top of the childs grave. They ask after his wife and the child, unsettling him a head in his life and his paranoia sets in. He is obviously terrified they would discover his secret. In attempt to hide his fear he asks the men if the child has been murdered. They attempted to re-assure him in that respect was nothing to gain from killing an innocent child. Then as they were attempting to raise his spirits, two bloodhounds bounded into the garden and began pacing and sniffing the ground, until they came upon the murderers chair they began to howl.The visitors utter that the dogs had made a discovery. It was then the murderer became hysterical that his two visitors after a battle restrained him, during which time the dogs tore at the earth and on seeing this, the murderer dropped to his knees and confessed the truth and begged for forgiveness. Then he retracts his confession for which hes tried and foun d guilty. His only Solace is the fact that his wife has lost all her faculties and does not know his and hers own misery and his guilt. I wonder, however, if our hero was truly repentant or just searching for sympathy since he has been found out disguising what was really inside as he had done all his life. Perhaps well never know the real badness.There are many similarities amid both stories. The Tell Tale Heart is autobiographical description/confession of the murder of a victim known by the perpetrator. It describes the careful process and preparation/planning of the murder and how the murderers own paranoia and psychosis results in the confession. They both describe the careful stalking of the victims.The Confession by Charles Dickens is also an autobiographical description/confession of the murder in which the victim is known to the murderer and also he describes the preparation and once again has confessed as a result of paranoia. Both stories use the technique of repetition to create tension and suspense, and the use of short sharp sentences are also used to construct the state of panic of which both murderers encounter when they are discovered.The contrasts between the two stories are that The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe talks of his love for the victim, but fear of the eye. There is no financial gain to the murder on the death of the victim. The author describes no regret or remorse for the act and prides himself on the cleverness of his actions, Edgar Allan Poe tells the story through a psychotic murderer, whereas in Charles Dickens The Confession, the author tells the story through more of a thinking and tactical murderer. The author dislikes the victim altogether with no love loss between them. There is a gain from the death of the victim. And during more rational times the murderer talks of much regret and remorse.