There are similarities between the two stories “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, and “The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Even though their writing styles are far apart they deal with a similar issue. Both authors deal with the fragility of the human mind. Both stories are very interesting and hold you to the core perhaps it is because any truly sane person knows that there is a little madness in all of us. Maybe that is why many people still read their stories today. In the story “The Tell Tale Heart” the narrator wants to show the reader that he is not insane. As proof, he offers a story. In the story, the initial situation is the narrator’s decision to kill the old man so that the man’s “evil” eye will stop …show more content…

In this quote from “The Yellow Wall Paper” it establishes the narrators fixation early on and most certainly foreshadows the course the narrator will take, “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough constantly to irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of (sic) contradictions.” (Gilman, pg. 327) Both authors concentrate on making plausible the obsessions of the protagonist. Poe, in a much stronger shorter work, succeeds with voice and style, “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation. And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously—oh, so cautiously—cautiously (for the hinges creaked)—I undid it just so much that a single ray fell upon the vulture eye,” (Poe, pg. 37)
Gilman builds her narrators disintegration more slowly, showing the obvious sublimation of her frustrations into her unhealthy fascination with the wallpaper, “There’s one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wallpaper. I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all, I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see. There are things in that paper than nobody knows but me, or ever will.” (Gilman, pg. 330) Poe is more straightforward, he leans