Unified Themes free essay sample

Any person can tell that Edgar Allen Poe does a great Job drawing in the reader by using specific themes to add effect his short stories, The Cask of the Amontillado, Hop Frog, and the Tell-Tale Heart. The use of theme in his short stories makes the reader want more. His use of revenge in his short stories makes the reader more curious and raises the level of suspense. Poe does well in using revenge to keep the reader engaged. The narrators view in each of the story gives you the main characters view f the story, which creates a bias towards that character. In some stories the reader will feel the murder was Justified. First, Hop-Frog is the story of a crippled Jester who was pushed to the point to murder. His fool, or professional Jester, was not only a fool, however. His value was trebled in the eyes of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf and a cripple. We will write a custom essay sample on Unified Themes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Hop Frog is a professional Jester whose Job is to humor the king by being a fool. One evening the King had decided to have a masquerade and have Hop-Frog and his dwarf friend, Trippetta, organize the characters and ostumes for the party. After he summons both of them the king makes Hop Frog drink a goblet of wine. After they are all intoxicated, Hop Frog planned to get revenge on the king and seven other cabinet members. He tricks them into chaining themselves for the people attending the masquerade, and make them look like great beasts. Hop Frog chains them up and covers them completely in tar and flax. Once the party starts, Hop Frog raises the Eight Chained Ourang-outangs thirty feet in the air and proceeds to set them on fire. He then climbs back up the chains and scapes out a window and disappeared with Trippetta. The theme of revenge in Hop- Frog plays a big role in how the story plays out. The use of revenge as a theme in this story does a great Job at keeping the reader engaged into the story. It makes the reader really want to know and think what is going to happen next. When Hop-Frog chains the King and his members up, it makes the reader curious about what he plans to do to them. In less than half a minute the whole eight ourang-outangs were blazing fiercely, amid the shrieks of the multitude who gazed at them from below, orror-stricken, and without the power to render them the slightest assistance. In this story the revenge is not thought out but more in the moment and under the influence of alcohol. Hop-Frog plans out this revenge because of all the times he was picked on by the king. He was sick of it all, so he planned to murder the king and under the influence of alcohol gave him the confidence to pull it off. The narrator as a witness to the events of the story also plays a big rol e in the story Hop-Frog. The narrators view throughout the story is on the negative things that happen to Hop- Frog. This creates a big personal bias and makes the reader favor the actions of Hop- Frog. It makes the reader feel bad for the main character and decide that the murder is Justified. The narrator is also a witness of all the actions that take place throughout threw the contents of the brimming goblet in her face. In this scene the narrator witnesses Tripetta trying to stop the king from making Hop-Frog drink alcohol, and the King ends up throwing his drink in Tripettas face. The narrator sees this and makes the reader feel bad for the two and wants to help them. Later, the narrator lso witnesses Hop-Frog setting the king and his cabinet members burned alive from the chandelier. The use of the theme setting creates a must-need image of the main character and his reason for the murder. The main character uses the fire as a dramatic element not only as a part of the setting but also part of the murder. The narrator uses the chandelier as a huge part in the setting as the place where the murder occurs. He uses the chandelier to present the eight members, then set them on fire and kill them all. And now, while the whole assembly (the apes included) were onvulsed with laughter, the Jester suddenly uttered a shrill whistle; when the chain flew violently up for about thirty feet-dragging with it the dismayed and struggling ourang-outangs, and leaving them suspended in midair betweenthe skylight and the floor. After he brings them to the chandelier he lights them on fire, giving the setting a dramatic element to draw the reader deeper into the story . Next, the Tell-Tale Heart is story of a madman who murders the old man he lives with because of his eye. The narrator opens the story and explains why he had to take the life of the old an. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees-very gradually-I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. For seven straight nights he would stick his head in the room where the old man sleeps and would beam a light from a lantern at the eye. On the eighth night the old man woke up as the narrator stuck his head in the room. The narrator beamed the light later at the eye and the man was awake. This angered the narrator and scared the old man to the point where the narrator could hear it. The narrator hen burst in the room and smothered the old man with his mattress until it killed him. He dismembered the body and proceeded to put the parts underneath the floor boards of the house. When the police came to investigate the disappearance, he heard the beating of his own heart and the guilt caused him to confess to the murder. Another thing is that the use of revenge in the Tell-Tale Heart is kind of different than the other two stories. In this story, the form of murder is more premeditated and planned out than Just at the right time. The narrator had planned o take the life of the old man a week before killing him. And this I did for seven long nights-every night Just after midnight-but I found the eye always closed. He watched him for seven straight nights until killing him on the eighth. The use of revenge as a theme in this story keeps the reader wondering when he will kill the old man and how he plans to kill him. It keeps the reader wanting to read more and gets the reader more curious about what will happen. Another reason why the narrator killed the old man was out of self-guilt. After the murder was complete, the narrator heard he beating of his heart and felt so guilty for killing the old man he confessed. The narrator couldnt handle hearing the beating of his heart because it sounded Just like the old mans when the narrator killed him. The narrators view in the Tell-Tale Heart was also the same as the others. It created a personal bias that made you think that that the murder wasnt as Justified as the others. In this story he murders this poor old man because he was bothered by one of his eyes. One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it. The theme of the narrators view n this story makes you want to believe that the killing of the old man is for the better. It tries to make you feel that its fine and its no big deal. Another thing on the narrators view is he watched the old man every night. He stood by the door in the floor and had it cracked Ju st enough to see him. The use of setting is a theme that plays a big part in Poes the Tell-Tale Heart. In the Tell-Tale Heart the narrator uses the darkness to murder the old man. It gives the main character a more secretive nature when he is using his setting to scare the old man. The setting is also a big art after the murder has taken place. The old man sleeps in a large room that only has an opening in the floor to enter and leave. This gives the narrator an easy way to murder the old man. After the main character kills the old man and dismembers him he proceeds to bury him in the floor boards. l then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye-not even his-could have detected anything wrong. The place where he hides the dismembered parts is very significant. When people come around to ask about the old man it ends up that they are standing right above im. The writer uses the setting to reflect the details throughout the killing. Also, the Cask of the Amontillado, the story of a man wanting revenge on another man, who supposedly ridiculed him thousands of times. The evening starts at dusk during the madness of a carnival where the narrators victim had already been drinking too much. There he decides to enact his revenge on the intoxicated Fortunato by using Amontillado. He draws his victim in saying he Just received a large cask of wine called Amontillado. As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchesi. If anyone has a critical urn, it is he. The narrator says this to get Fortunato to come with him and he ends up agreeing. He follows the narrator down deep into the catacombs underneath Paris. The narrator gets Fortunato to go into a room far at the end of the vaults and chains his victim to the wall covered in skulls and bones. He then pr oceeds to brick up the room so no one can enter and find the chained Fortunato. The story ends with the narrator putting the final brick in place, closing the room for half of a century of nothing disturbing it.