Aristotle once said, “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.” Of these seven motives, two of them stand out as having been used in the short horror stories The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe and The Monkey’s Paw by W.W Jacobs; compulsion in Poe’s, and desire in Jacobs’s. When further analyzed, three topics present themselves as being prominent and necessary to compare: the points of view within these stories, the motives behind the deaths of major characters, and what the conflict symbolizes. The short stories The Tell-Tale Heart and The Monkey’s Paw, although differing greatly in point of view and motive, include components akin to one another involving.
…show more content…
Although the narrator’s very sanity could be questioned by this quote, a crucial point that also must be taken into account is that he has a clear and blatant bias. Events in the story could easily be accidentally, or deliberately, misinterpreted by the narrator due to his overconfidence in his abilities. In addition, no other character has a real perspective into what the narrator is thinking or doing as he is so secretive, making it even more difficult to distinguish truth from lies. The short story “The Monkey’s Paw”, however, contains a point of view and narrator reliability that greatly contrasts itself from that of “The Tell-Tale Heart”. This allegory easily distinguishes itself as a piece in third-person omniscient point of view to the reader, evident in lines 39-40, quoted, “He began to talk, the little family circle regarding with interest this visitor from distant parts”. Not only does the quote support the first-person argument, but the narrator’s ability to know the character’s feelings proves that it is omniscient as well. The narrator, much …show more content…
Self conflict. Although several barriers in the physical world may distract the reader and lead them to think that the only issue is between a character and an outside force, the real problem lies within the characters’ brains. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, while it may seem as the murderer is solely killing the man he works under due to his cloudy eye, the story can be interpreted as something much deeper, and much more complex.This eye, despite its abnormalities, is not meant to represent a physical eye. The eye is intended to symbolize the narrator’s flaws or all that he has done in his past that he regrets doing. He is desperate to remove those from his memory and the memories of others and will do anything to make that hope come true, even if it means radically changing his life by killing the man who had the eye this narrator so despised. Referring to the plan to kill his employer due to this, lines 8-9 say, “It is impossible to say how the idea first entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night” In “The Monkey’s Paw”, the conflict, while still Man vs. Self, requires one to look much deeper to discover. It is subtly slid into the story, however, and when noticed, can open up a whole new way of thinking about the piece. “Mr. White took the paw from his pocket and eyed it
Although the narrator’s very sanity could be questioned by this quote, a crucial point that also must be taken into account is that he has a clear and blatant bias. Events in the story could easily be accidentally, or deliberately, misinterpreted by the narrator due to his overconfidence in his abilities. In addition, no other character has a real perspective into what the narrator is thinking or doing as he is so secretive, making it even more difficult to distinguish truth from lies. The short story “The Monkey’s Paw”, however, contains a point of view and narrator reliability that greatly contrasts itself from that of “The Tell-Tale Heart”. This allegory easily distinguishes itself as a piece in third-person omniscient point of view to the reader, evident in lines 39-40, quoted, “He began to talk, the little family circle regarding with interest this visitor from distant parts”. Not only does the quote support the first-person argument, but the narrator’s ability to know the character’s feelings proves that it is omniscient as well. The narrator, much …show more content…
Self conflict. Although several barriers in the physical world may distract the reader and lead them to think that the only issue is between a character and an outside force, the real problem lies within the characters’ brains. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, while it may seem as the murderer is solely killing the man he works under due to his cloudy eye, the story can be interpreted as something much deeper, and much more complex.This eye, despite its abnormalities, is not meant to represent a physical eye. The eye is intended to symbolize the narrator’s flaws or all that he has done in his past that he regrets doing. He is desperate to remove those from his memory and the memories of others and will do anything to make that hope come true, even if it means radically changing his life by killing the man who had the eye this narrator so despised. Referring to the plan to kill his employer due to this, lines 8-9 say, “It is impossible to say how the idea first entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night” In “The Monkey’s Paw”, the conflict, while still Man vs. Self, requires one to look much deeper to discover. It is subtly slid into the story, however, and when noticed, can open up a whole new way of thinking about the piece. “Mr. White took the paw from his pocket and eyed it