Edgar Allan Poe
Compare & Contrast
'Cask of the Amontillado' & 'Tell-Tale Heart'

Compare

• In 'Cask of the Amontillado' you can tell that Montresor has a problem in the beginning of the story. In 'Tell-Tale Heart' the narrator hints at being a little off, since the old man's eye makes him angry. They both definitely have something wrong with them.

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• Another similarity is that they are both murderers. In 'Cask of the Amontillado' Montresor kills his 'friend' Fortunato because he insulted him. In 'Tell-Tale Heart', the narrator kills an old man because he doesn't like his fake eye.

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• Next, both men killed someone else over a little thing. Montresor killed Fortunato because he insulted him once. Everyone gets insulted, it was not that big of a deal. In 'Tell-Tale Heart' the narrator killed the poor, old man because he has a glass eye. That's not his fault he lost his eye. If it bothered the narrator, he could've just left the guy alone.

Contrast

• The reasoning behind these murders is one aspect that sets these stories apart. In 'Cask of the Amontillado', Montresor kills Fortunato because he had insulted him. The narrator in 'Tell-Tale Heart' killed the old man because he could not stand having to look at his fake eye.

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• Another thing that is different in these stories is the manner that the people are killed in. In 'Tell-Tale Heart', the old man was suffocated and then dismembered. You could say that he didn't really suffer. In 'Cask of the Amontillado', Fortunato was buried alive, so he was suffering alone until he fnally died.

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• Finally, the settings in the stories contrast. In 'The Cask of the Amontillado' it takes place during 1 night and all of the action is mostly in the catacombs. In 'Tell-Tale Heart' it takes place over a series of many nights in the old man's house and bedroom.

By:
Mackenna O'Sullivan