Emaly Quintana Serrano
June 22, 2008
Ingl 3202, sec. 01a
Essay #2
A Necessary Madness
The dictionary defines comparison as a evaluation of the similarities and differences of two (or more) things. But in my case it was only trough Alan Poe biography that I could not only understand but analyze this amazing and trilling plays. Not only this man left us a variety of plays but he also left his life story. This last mentioned was just as surprising as his plays, this I will use as a reference of his writings. To compare, is not such a difficult job but to see behind the lines of this stories is a much complicated thing. You see there was a connection between his life and his plays. But there was also a huge connection between the stories The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart. There are many things in common and the author is not the exception but one thing is for sure they where two mad man who saw a necessity to commit such acts.
The Black Cat begins telling the reader that he does not need our approval that the only thing he wants is to unburden his soul by telling he’s story. This man wants the public to believe that what happened was nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects. For him this was a supernatural experienced that obligated him to act the way he did. In The Tell-Tale Heart the assassin tries to defend him self by putting guilty his high sense of hearing.
An important fact here is that they both think and want to convince us in an abstract way, that they are not mad and that their actions have a cause. Trough out the story they manipulate the reader by asking questions and presenting arguments like, “why will you say that I am mad?” “How then am I mad? And observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story”. “Madmen know nothing”. “I neither expect nor solicit belief”. This are some things they say to convince the public and themselves that they are not crazy.
Both man killed something that they loved, but love was not everything. They were disturbed. One by a disgusting eye, and the other by a black cat. Why was it necessary? For the men in The Black Cat it was a matter of freedom. He had to get rid of that cat because he felt like a prisoner. A prisoner of memory. The new cat remembered him the only animal that was always with him ant the only thing he demonstrated love to after becoming an alcoholic. This black cat fallowed him and remembered him what he did to Pluto. He was being asphyxiated by the presence of the cat, because of this he felt the necessity to get rid of him and everything that intervened with his plans (including his wife). An aye plays the same roll in The Tell-Tale Heart story. This man felt hunted, it was not because of the old man. It was just that the eye gave him disgust and incommodity. He felt the obligation to get rid of it, because of his tranquility. This is why everything was planed and it was not impulsively done. They had been disturbed for long ago and they needed to be in peace.
Confessing is a grate thing in this story. Its how their conscience explodes. At the end the both confess. But still they can’t manage to confess and stay quiet at the same time. They narrate the story as if what they did was magnificent and necessary. They both berried the bodies in the house, gave a clue if not confess to the police. They manage to fell accomplished, comfortable and free. Alan Poe liberates himself by writing these short stories that also tell us part of what was going trough Alan’s life. If I dared to compare these two stories it was only because I had the perfect guide. Alan Poe’s biography.
