In ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ there are many more relationships going on in the story. The relationships consist of two brothers, one of which is the narrator. The brothers are married to two sisters. The narrator especially hates his brother’s wife because he appears to be afraid of her. ‘I was afraid of her; she haunted me.’ This quote shows the reason why he is scared of her and the reason is that she haunts him. However, while the narrator was abroad for whatever reason, he found out that his brother’s wife had died (this was a great relief and great news for the narrator) due to giving birth to ‘a child – a boy.’ When the narrator arrived back home his brother was in a terrible state and ‘knew that all hope of his own recovery was past.’ He had told the narrator’s wife that should anything happen to him then he would pass on the boy to her protection. The narrator and his brother exchanged words before his brother died with being too exhausted. From there on, every time he looked into the boys eyes he could see the boy’s mother. Could this be a problem in the future?
The victim in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ is the little boy. The motive for wanting to kill him is that he could pose a problem in the future. Another problem is that the narrator could see the boy’s mother in his eyes every time he looked at him.
The victim in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is the old man, and the motive for killing him is his eye. The narrator claims that it ‘resembled that of a vulture.’ Apart from that, there is no other motive that I can find in the story. The narrator himself doesn’t know where this idea of the vulture’s eye came from. I know this because he says ‘It’s impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain.’ This shows that the narrator is quite forgetful which could lead to a conclusion of madness.
The victim in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ is the little boy and the motive behind killing him is that he could cause problems in the future. The murderer could see the boy’s mother, every time he looked into the boy’s eyes. This was yet again another problem which produces yet another motive. There seems to be a similarity between the motives in killing the victims in both stories. The similarity is that the motives are ridiculous and are not respectable reasons for committing a murder.
The murder scenes in both stories are very different from each other. In ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ the murder is committed inside, in a dark room, where it is confined and nobody can witness what is happening inside. However, in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ the murder is committed outside in broad daylight. The sun is shining brightly in a wide open space. The murder takes place where it could have been witnessed by many people. This shows a big comparison between the two stories.
Both narrators plan the murders in a similar way by watching their victims and studying their victims over a period of time. In a ‘Tell-Tale Heart,’ the murderer enters the old mans house ‘slowly – very, very slowly,’ then stepped into the victims bedroom to watch him ‘lay upon his bed’. I also know that he did this slowly because the narrator says, ‘It took me an hour to place my whole head.’ This shows that he must have also been very cautious and moved very slowly. Its also illustrates the idea of madness. He spies on the old man ‘for seven long nights – every hour at midnight,’ the narrator waits to see if he can see the ‘vulture’s eye.’ During this time, the eye was closed and there was nothing he can do. However, on the eighth night, the narrator was a little careless and created a noise, loud enough to awake the old man. The old man briskly sat up in bed but did not notice a thing. Very carefully, after an hour, the narrator ‘stealthily, stealthily,’ opened ‘a little – a very, very little crevice in the lantern.’ Then ‘a single dim ray’ from the lantern shone upon the eye of the old man. This was done in order for the narrator to get a glimpse of the eye. This made the narrator extremely furious as the eye was uncovered. By now the narrator was obviously making his plans the kill the old man as the anger increased.
In ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ the narrator similarly watches the victim as he sleeps occasionally. He also watches his victim during the day from a window, or from behind a tree. The plan for the murder was to watch the child’s movements, before shaping with a pocket-knife ‘a rough model of a boat’ which when finally finished, was ‘dropped in the child’s way’. It was then that the narrator retired to a ‘secret place.’ This was intended to lure the child down to the waters edge to play with the boat, and provide the place to commit the murder. The narrator waited in his secret place for that day and the next and from ‘noon till nightfall’ but the boy did not make an appearance. However, on the third day the boy came ‘running joyously along’ and into the awaiting trap of the narrator.
The watching of the victim in their sleep are similar themes in both stories. Also the waiting for hours and hours until they get what they came for are also similar themes in both ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II.’
The tension is built in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is done by using longer sentences just before the actual murder. There is a lot of tension between lines 48-50. This is done by using one long sentence separated by many commas. The pace is then slowed down in the next couple of paragraphs and this is done by continuing the pattern of long sentences.
The tension in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ is built just as the boy passes pass the narrator in his ‘secret place.’ The tension continues as the narrator follows the boy down to the steam, because you are wondering when and where the action will take place.
The unexpected problem that arises in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is when the narrator’s ‘thumb slipped upon the tin fastening.’ This alerted the old man as he ‘sprang up in bed, crying out – “Who’s there?” This is and unexpected problem as the narrator has been so careful and cautious up to that point that he doesn’t make any noise. However, there was some good that came out of this for the narrator as after this problem, he manages to see the eye.
The unexpected problem that arises in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ is that once the narrator has followed the boy down to the steam and raises his hand to ‘thrust him’ but the boy unexpectedly turned round. (This is similar the man sitting up in bed in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’) There is also another problem that haunts the narrator and that is that the narrator can see the boy’s mother’s ghost in the boy’s eyes. This could have been another motive that provoked the narrator to kill the boy.
Disposing of the bodies in both stories is done using the same method, burying; however, one narrator seems to be more confident about the whole thing than the other one. In ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ the narrator seems to be very unsure and not very confident about burying the body. Obviously worried about the possibility of it getting found. Burying the body probably wasn’t included in his plans or not very well thought out because after the murder, the body was just stashed in a thicket until the night. During the night, the narrator would retreat from his bedroom window, and bury the body. Once the task was completed, the narrator went back into is bedroom and tried to get to sleep. Here is where the narrator seems to suffer with mental problems as he finds it very hard to sleep. He has ‘dreams of being hunted down’ along with many other similar dreams. At certain points he ‘always woke and stole to the window to make sure that it was not really so.’ This shows how worried and unconfident he is about the whole situation. It also shows how it is constantly on his mind. During that night he only slept in ‘fits and starts,’ constantly dreaming the same dream over and over again. Throughout the night he got up and lied down a total of twenty times showing how unsettled he was.
In the story of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ it was a totally different story for the narrator. He gives the impression that he not mad, but from his actions I can see that he possesses some sort of madness. This madness makes him think that he is almost invincible. ‘I felt the extent of my own powers’ seems like he has some sort of superpowers which links back to the idea of madness. This madness and invincibility makes him a very confident person, unlike the narrator in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II.’ I no that he is a very confident person and very full of himself because of some of the phrases that he says. ‘Now you may think that I drew back – but no’ is a phrase that really highlights the confidence of the narrator, along with ‘how calmly I can tell you the whole story.’ ‘Oh you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in!’ also shows the confidence of the narrator and also shows how smug he can be. This confidence makes the disposal of the body a breeze because he is so confident that the body will not be found. The method that he uses to dispose of the body of the old man is to bury it under the planks of the floor in the chamber. This is done after he has ‘dismembered the corpse.’ ‘I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.’ The narrator says this as if it was no difficulty, and as if it was a normal everyday thing. This highlights the madness and confidence. After the body had been buried the narrator comments on the precautions he had taken when dissecting the body. ‘There was nothing to wash out – no stain of any kind – no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all – ha! ha!’ These sentences show how amusing and enjoyable he found the whole thing. It is as if he is praising himself.
In ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ the narrator is not sorry for what he has done or does not regret his actions; in fact he feels quite proud of himself and is confident that no one will find out what has happened. Even when officers come round to the house, he smiles confidently and says ‘for what had I to fear,’ then opens the door willingly to them. He doesn’t seem bothered or affected in any way.
However, in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ the narrator obviously regrets what he has done and is worried about the risk of being caught, because for days after the murder, he sits by the window, staring at the place where the boy is buried. I know this because there are many sentences that show this; ‘the next day I sat at the window again, never once taking my eyes from the place’ is an example.
In both stories, the narrators confess early. This is a similarity. In ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ the narrator confesses early to the reader because he says, ‘this is the last night I have to live, and I will set down the naked truth without disguise.’ This shows that narrator is on death row, with one more night to live. He wants to admit to what he has done. He’ll do this and will tell the truth and no lies.
In ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ he also confesses early to the reader by saying ‘how calmly I can tell you the whole story.’ This is obvious that there is something that he is going to confess and wants to share.
There is also a confession to officers at the end off both stories which is also a similarity. In ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ the narrator confesses to the officers by saying ‘I admit the deed’ and then demanding them to ‘tear up the planks.’ The narrator seems to lose some of his confidence at this point and seems very unsettled. It is almost the same in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ because the narrator says ‘what more have I to tell?’ which indicates that he is going to confess. He then gets down on his knees with ‘chattering teeth’ (showing how he was nervous) and ‘confessed the truth.’ He also ‘prayed to be forgiven’ which shows resentment.
The main differences between the two stories are the age of the victim; in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ the victim is an old man, but in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ the victim is a very young boy. Another difference is where the murders take place; in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ the murder takes place inside, but in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ the murder takes place outside. The personalities of the narrators is yet another difference; in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ the narrator is a relatively normal man with a reasonable amount of confidence and a family, but in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ the narrator is a madman and is extremely confident, smug and boastful. Throughout the story there is no evidence of family.
Out of the stories that I have read and studied in detail, the one I prefer is ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ This is because it was shorter and I preferred the writing style because it was easier to read than ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II.’ I also preferred the narrator because he was more interesting. He was extremely mad and confident, unlike the narrator in ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ who was a normal sort of man with nothing distinctively exiting about him. I also enjoyed the build up to murder more because there was a lot more tension and it was very exiting. The idea of an eye looking like a vulture’s eye as a motive for murder was interesting and quite amusing. Also in the story there were a lot of unexpected things that happened such as the lantern making a noise and waking the old man. These sorts of things along with a combination of other things made me want to read on.
However, ‘A confession found in a prison in the time of Charles II’ did have good parts about it such as when the boy was followed down to the stream just before the murder and also the pregnancy at the beginning. The narrator was a bit boring so therefore not as good as the narrator in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ On the whole I found it too long and difficult to read, understand and interpret.