The killer in 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' is driven by his love for his wife, but his obsession gets the better of him until he is surely going to get caught. Tony Kytes seems to be more realistic out of the three stories, but 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' is also more believable than 'The Tale-Tale Heart'.
'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' goes into the theory of the subconscious. '...(But, after all, he hadn't planned a murder, and his subconscious, which may have known of the crime before its commitment, had not even hinted he might need gloves before the night is finished)' The murderer at this point has realised at this point that maybe this murder was planned. The theory of the subconscious was not really introduced until after 1914 but I believe Edgar Allan Poe may have accidentally or even purposely stumbled on something. In 'The Tale-Tale Heart' the unnamed murderer stalks his victim every night at exactly twelve midnight as if to check up on him. It could be argued that each night the murderer secretly stalked the old man, he was subconsciously planning his evil murder and how to do it silently. I have researched a bit on the theory of the subconscious and have retrieved this quote from Charles E. Henderson, Ph.D.
'Consciousness is said to be the part of the mind we think we think with. It comprises only a small part of the total mind, and in many ways it is the least significant part. The subconscious, on the other hand, is really running the show most of the time. This position is manifest in almost everything we do.
The argument is easy to make and is overwhelmingly persuasive (except to those who are determined not to believe it). Consider this: If you truly ruled your life with the conscious part of your mind, you probably would not be reading this now. You would be a person who does only those things he consciously decided to do. You would have no problem resisting anything; nothing would be too much of a temptation for you. You would have no mental blocks, you would not dream, and you would have unbelievable concentration and memory.'
Characters alone in a story can be very revealing. The physical appearance, the way they act or even their name could tell more about the story than if we just simply read it. For example; 'The Tell-Tale Heart' contains nameless narrator, which may have been used because a murder is very mysterious and unless caught no one will actually know who the murderer is. Thinking about that point, it makes the first person narrative seem more realistic because it makes me feel as if I am really at the scene of the crime, as it is happening. The protagonist or narrator becomes the true focus of the tale. This narrator may be male or female because Poe uses only "I" and "me" in reference to this character. Most readers assume that the narrator is a male because of a male author using a first person point of view; however, this story can also be plausible when the deranged protagonist appears as a woman. Most critics would argue this point by saying that Poe would "assume" that the reader would "know" that the protagonist was male, therefore, he would see no need to identify his sexless narrator. However, Poe was said to be a perfectionist who left very little to guesswork. Could it be that this was no accident or something that he thought would be universally understood? But that Poe was creating a story whose impact could be changed simply by imagining this horrendous and vile deed being committed by a woman. Like 'The Tell-Tale Heart' the victim in 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' knew his killer. But unlike it, we are told the murderers full name and his motives. Looking at this difference, I could argue that one of the points why 'The Tell-Tale Heart' killer may not be named is because the victim may not have been able to make out this fatal assassin. Whereas because the victim in 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' saw who his murderer was, this may be the reason why we are given his name. The Tell-Tale Heart' murderer describes the old man's eye to us by saying, 'One of his eyes resembled that if a vulture.' This quote makes me see into what the murderer is feeling a bit more. The killer sees this eye as evil, which therefore seems to make his victim evil. The belief in the evil eye dates back to ancient times and even today, is fairly common in India and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. References are made to it in Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu faiths. The belief centres around the idea that those who possess the evil eye have the power to harm people or their possessions by merely looking at them. Wherever this belief exists, it is common to assign the evil eye as the cause of unexplainable illnesses and misfortunes of any kind. The description of D.Huxley in 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' is very detailed and tells us a bit more about him in general and so does the description of Tony Kytes. Looking at the killers actions and his thought that he is not going mad in 'The Tell-Tale Heart', I think that it is reasonable to say that he is an unreliable narrator. I feel this because he seems very confused and has a lot to learn. I have also noticed in the story 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' the characters refer to each other by their sir names. This could be because at the time this story was written, people spoke in a very formal way. But I also think it was used to show that they are not friends to be calling each other by first names, which shows how much respect they have for each other.
'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' is described in a third person narrative. A third person narrative is when we are given an account in of what occurred in a situation. This account should hopefully be less biased as it is not given to us from the principal character's perspective (the main character). This means we are given an independent view from someone else who may or not have been there. But I think 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' may be in some ways biased because the only people at the scene of the crime was Huxley and Acton. Since Huxley is dead, for anybody to know what happened the information would have to come from Acton. So this independent view we experience would still have a lot of Acton's perspective being told. ' "Oh!" cried Huxley, fending him off. He gave Acton a shove as they struggled.' This is what I would call a perfect example of a third person narrative. Not only does it show that it's not Acton telling the story, it tells us that Huxley is not telling the story. Both characters are described using their 'names', and 'they' instead of 'I'. They are described in the view of a narrator or storyteller who is unnamed. 'Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver' is also a third person narrative whose storyteller is not named but we are told his occupation (a carrier). My next quote proves the story is told by the carrier and also backs up my theory of third person narrative. 'But in course of time Tony got fixed down to one in particular' (fixed down means tied down or engaged). 'The Tale-Tale Heart' is unlike the other to stories in the way that it is presented in first person narrative. First person narrative basically means the story is being described by a character. Using words like 'I', 'myself' or 'me'. The murderer is the person using first person narrative. This could be argued to be an advantage in a way because we are able to get a more detailed description of the characters experiences and feelings. This account provides a secret view into the personal and distinctive emotions from the character. A good quote to show us this is 'True - nervous - very, very nervous I had been and am'. This quote from the text also backs up what I have written about first person narrative. I think the most apparent and useful form of perspective would be the first person narrative, especially in the 'Tell Tale Heart'. This emphasises true feelings and emotions of madness through the character involved. There is not as much detail in description outside of the murderers mind but I think Edgar Allan Poe done this on purpose to focus on the feelings and madness of the murderer. Although this singular opinion is brilliant for telling us the feelings of the murderer, the third person provides a better external view, but no genuine individual feelings of the characters.
'Acton stood a long time feeling the red heart beat inside his shut eyes, within his head....he looked at the new fresh wall straight ahead of him and finally got courage to speak. "Silly," he said. "That wall's flawless. I won't touch it. Got to hurry. Got to hurry. Time, Time." '. This extract from 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' shows how large Actons obsession has grown. He looks for fingerprints on walls that he most probably has never touched and his reference to time shows that he knows if he stays to long he will get caught. This time reference builds tension and builds a certain mood as our suspense makes us wonder will he leave in time. Ray Bradbury uses a lot of punctuation to help us feel how scared and worried the killer actually is. The mood or atmosphere in 'The Tale-Tale Heart' can be described as very spooky and mysterious. Every night the murderer plagues his victim, building suspense as he takes step by step precautions while entering the room. These to stories atmospheres both have a horror feel to it, where as Tony Kytes is quite different. The main suspense is built up by the thought of Tony Kytes being caught. The mood becomes tense once all three ladies are inside the cart.
My favourite out of the tree short-story has to be 'The Tell-Tale Heart'. This was because it was extremely effective in giving an excellent view of insanity and madness through the eyes, actions and thoughts of a first time murderer. This story for me kept me most in suspense and wanting to read more. However the other stories were very good as well especially 'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl. I felt sorry for Acton because his obsession got the better of him. He was unaware of his actions and, I suppose, this is the cause of insanity, not knowing what you are doing. I have learnt about the omniscient skills writers use to adopt masks as if to hide what they think, and let you make up your own mind. Each writer is very skilled and I hope to read more of their work.
