A Tale Of Two Murders

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it comes from some inner compulsion of the evil-doer
himself who suffers...Thus he has willed his crime and he wills his retribution" (Davidson 189). Both characters take the lives of the men in the stories with little regard, "These characters are themselves god-players" (Davidson 189). In "The Tell-Tale Heart" the narrator confesses to the unsuspected police to receive his punishment, " in this respect the god easily passes into the devil and becomes his maker and his slayer both"(Davidson 190).
In both stories, the reader becomes quickly aware of the fact that both narrators are not reliable. The narrators feel that they performed the murders so calmly so there is no way they could be mad. In both stories the narrator is continually stressing to the reader that he is not mad, and tries to be convincing of the fact by how carefully these brutal crimes were planned and executed. The reader is invited into the inner workings of the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and Montresor's ...

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leads to murder. The narrators repeatedly insist that they are not mad, but the reader soon realizes that both of the narrators' fears have consumed them.
Both narrators have shut out human emotion as much as they could. Yet they both have moments of pity for their victims. In "The Cask of Amontillado" it is one brief moment followed by an explanation, "My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so" (214). He catches himself feeling sorry for Fortunado but is too proud to continue. In "The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator openly admits his feelings, but he had no hate for his victim to begin with, "I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although ...

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