There are more different locations in The Purloined Letter compared to the different locations in The Black Cat. The Purloined Letter has locations such as Minister D’s hotel, which adds mystery; Royal apartment equals high society and extravagance. Dupin’s apartment is small, smoky and claustrophobic, probably representing Dupin. The Black Cat has more haunting locations such as basements and pubs, which give a sense of vile haunts. Also the tree is spooky as that is were the cat was hanged. There is no similarities between both of the stories locations as The Purloined Letters locations give the story that mysterious feel, whilst The Black Cats locations or more haunting and spooky.
The Black Cat uses a lot of different types of punctuations to create that fast heart pumping pace and give the story faster flowing paragraphs. Although The Purloined Letter has hardly any different types of punctuations as the effect in The Purloined Letter is to make the sentences long and slow.
The Purloined Letter persistently doesn’t use literature techniques. This is because the author doesn’t want to detract from the rich and arduous texture of the prose. Whereas The Black Cat uses literature techniques such as dissonance, alliteration, sibilance etc. this is used to create the effect of the haunts in the story.
The Purloined Letter has more different types of language techniques used then The Black Cat. The Purloined Letters language is rich, intelligent and complex. This is so we approach the prose the same way Dupin approaches the case. The sentences are also long, to make the story more slower and mysterious. The Black Cat has no language techniques except the use of syntax, which is also the only similarity between The Black Cat and The Purloined Letter. The Purloined Letter uses syntax such as, meditation, examine, puzzled etc. Language like this gives the story it’s mysterious and detective type feel.
The Black Cat uses syntax such as torture, corpse, and evil etc. These describe the murderous violent and horror of the story.
The language is also used in a way to represent the genre of the story, in which case both of the stories have different genres.
The Black Cat has is made up of four different types of genres. Such as suspense, mystery, horror and thriller. The Purloined Letter is made up of three different types of genres, which include mystery, intellectual mystery, detective fiction (classic). There is nothing in common with the genres of both of the stories except that they both contain some aspects of mystery.
The pace of The Purloined Letter is slow but builds up at the end to give the story a dramatic effect. It’s got long descriptive paragraphs to make the story slow and deliberate. Whilst The Black Cat has a pace that could be compared to a roller coaster ride, as it has staccato sentences, which make it, heart pumping.
There is no similarity in the pace of the stories, as they both have to be different to create a right mood for the story.
The pace connects the mood/tone of the stories. You can see that The Black Cat has a heart pumping pace which make it sinister, spine chilling and scary. On the other hand The Purloined Letter has a more dry, mysterious and complex mood/tone. Which connects with the pace being slow and deliberate.
Both of the stories images are completely different. The Black Cat has images such as the burning house, the one-eyed black cats and a ghoulish image of the cat on the wall. The Purloined letter has a lot of images but two main images of the boy and the marbles and the image of searching the hotel. The Black Cats images are spooky and rather disturbing compared to the more intellectual and mysterious images that are shown in The Purloined Letter.
Each story has to have a central image. The Black Cats central image is the cat, which relates to evil connotations. But The Purloined Letters central image being the letter relates to intrigue and theft. The Purloined Letters central image makes us want to know what’s in the letter and is therefore mysterious. A bit like The Black Cats central image the cat. The cat is also a bit mysterious as it is described as being spooky.
Last of all the characters in the two stories have there own personality, which take part in making up the whole story.
The Purloined Letter has four main characters, Minister D, the Prefect, the Narrator and Dupin. The Minister is devious and cunning which helps to build the mystery in the story. The Prefect is logical and methodical but fails to get the letter and so adds more suspense and curiosity to the story. The Narrator doesn’t take part in the story but is just an observant, like a genre character. Dupin is a classic detective who is super wise and articulates. He is also cool calm and you can say mysterious. As he has past history with Minister D, Dupin adds the revenge in the story.
The Black Cat has three main characters. The Cat, the Narrator and the Wife. The Cat is the central image of the story and one of the main characters. The characteristics of the Cat signify death and vengeance. Also this character is the reason for the downfall of the Narrator.
The Narrator is actually telling the story through first person. He narrates the story trough his eyes. The narrator is someone that has dynamic changes. From a pet lover and a kind person to an alcoholic who is just plainly insane. The last character, the Wife is the opposite of the Narrator. While the narrator is evil and insane, the Wife is kind and gentle, but is also a victim of the narrator’s murderous ways.
The characters in The Purloined Letter all each have a characteristic, which builds up the detective type story, which is mostly about mystery. On the other hand The Black Cats characters give the story a more disturbing and haunting vibe.
There are no real similarities between any of the two stories characters. Except maybe the mysteriousness of the Cat could be compared to Dupin’s mysteriousness. Also both of these characters have vengeance on their minds.
I think that both stories are good, but do not hold hardly any major similarities between each other. This is probably because The Black Cat is a horror and a faster paced story, while The Purloined Letter is more slow and intellectual. Maybe the only main things that are in both stories and are similar is probably the mystery in both of the stories and the thirst for revenge.
