Selina Schuster 
A literary comparison of Edgar Allan Poe´s 'The Black Cat’ and 'The Tell-Tale Heart’ [PDF ebook] 

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject American Studies – Literature, grade: 2, 0, University of Paderborn (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Proseminar American Gothic, language: English, abstract: 'And much of Madness and more of Sin And Horror the Soul to the Plot.’ This line taken from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘The Conquerer Worm’ perfectly describes the
essential elements featured in many of Poe’s poems and stories, on which I am about to write
in particular. Madness and horror, sins and the ‘Imp of the Perverse’ – The Evil, which lies
within all of us – are popular and frequently recurring motives in Poe’s literary works and
thereby create a mood and atmosphere quite dark and nightmarish. The reader is offered a
deep glance into the abyss of the human mind and psyche.
In this term paper I’m going to draw a comparison between two of Poe’s short stories, which
both deal with the above mentioned concepts and images and therefore, are counted to the
Gothic Genre – ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ The main focus of my work will
lie on the similarities of the storytelling structures and the speech Poe uses to convey this
certain feeling of suspense, horror and thrill. I will examine which further motives and images
Poe uses in this two stories and which function they fulfil.
I’m going to carry out my researches primarily with the help of the books: ‘Poe’ by Walter
Lenning, ‘Poe – A Biography’ by Frank T. Zumbach, ‘The Cambridge Companion to Gothic
Fiction’ by Jerrod Hogle and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings’ by Edgar
Allan Poe.

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