Both of the short stories share several characteristics that reflect the concepts of Dark Romanticism. The two stories had a couple of the same themes covered, but the most evident one was guilt. In “The Boarded Window,” during the end of the story, Murlock realizes that his wife did not die, after finding evidence on her mutilated body. The severity of her illness did not allow her to respond. Furthermore, the narrator to Poe’s short story becomes overwhelmed with guilt when he begins to hear the heartbeat of the late elderly man’s heart within the floorboards. Bierce was able to incorporate foreshadowing when Murlock could not weep for his wife and was unsure why. Deep down inside, he probably knew that his wife wasn’t dead. Similarly, Poe
