The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart

-         Edgar Allan Poe

         This short story is about a mad servant who killed his master in passion of disliking him.  The master was an old man and having only one eye, the other one was made up from plastic.

    

       In the beginning of the story narrator tries to explain himself towards his own soul or we can say to readers that he is not mad by saying that,

“Why will you say that I am Mad?”

        From many days the servant was having hidden hatred towards the master only because of that plastic smile. He also confesses that the old man was very good with him but the fault was only with his eye,

“Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man”

     

        He killed him and then also buried him under the floor when police officers came for investigation. He said while narrating that,

“The disease had sharpened my senses---not destroyed it”

 But his guilt has forced his all senses and by his narration we can also feel that,

“It grew louder.... louder... louder....

It is the beating of his hideous heart”

    

       By reading of the story we can observe some disorders of psychopath like, over confidence, impaired empathy, hidden hatred, coldblooded murder, selfishness and insincere speech.

The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe

The Cask of Amontillado

-        Edgar Allan Poe

       The story is based on the revenge of an insult. The narrator Montresor tells the story of his brutal revenge with his friend Fortunato. He was his friend but when he started insulting Monstresor he vowed revenge. As he said in the beginning of the story,

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge”

       We can interpret the story with the help of two themes, Insult and revenge and self ego. The narrator has planned everything and then murdered Fortunato so it is a coldblooded murder. They were friends but their emotions were shallow. There was a violence but with planning and coldblooded. As narrator has told the victim,

“Come, you are rich, respect, admired, beloved; you are happy as once I was”

         Poe’s characters are psychologically ill sometimes. In this story we can consider the narrator as psychopath. There are many ways to take revenge or solve the problem. Murder is not the ultimate solution of any problem. The sense of guilt can be considered as the major element of the story as after fifty years he confesses his crime.  The Gothic elements can be felt by the setting of the story, the images of castle and basement with darkness.

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea

-        Ernest Hemingway

          Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist and short story writer. He won Nobel Prize in literature in 1954. Many of his works are considered as the classics of American literature. He committed suicide in the summer of 1961. Old man and the sea is a short novel. This was the last major fiction work by Hemingway. It deals with the struggle of Santiago and a giant fish Marlin.

          Santiago is an old man and trying to catch a fish from last 83 days. He went on fishing and finally he caught a Marlin which is a huge fish. In this story there is a struggle between Sea and Santiago, and Marlin and Santiago. If we observe the situation, we can say that,

Santiago – a man with will power

The sea – Universe/ world

Marlin – Great achievement / opportunity

Sharks – Hurdle in the achievements

         

        There are symbols in the novel like mast which is presented as the cross of Christ and when Santiago is walking with carrying the mast it looks like the Christ is walking with his cross. The second is Marlin which seems as the great warrior and which surrenders after a long fight of two days. Next is baseball and the player Di Maggio which gives strength to Santiago and reminds him his days of youth. In the novel whenever Santiago tries to sleep, the same dream he saw again and again which has lions on beach. Santiago was a fisherman and for him sea and beach was the symbol of freedom and lions were the symbol of pride.

         

     The novel contains themes like Death and defeat, Sin of killing vs. Law of nature, hope and heroism, luck vs. Superstition and honour in struggle. He continuously talks with the fish by saying that,

“Fish, he said, ‘I love you and respect you very much but I will kill you dead”

His conversation with the fish (nature) presents the struggle of life and achieving pride and honour. As he said,

“But man is not made for defeat, A man can be Destroyed but not defeated”

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorn

The Scarlet Letter

-        Nathaniel Hawthorn

       Nathaniel Hawthorn was an American Novelist, dark romantic and short story writer. His works have moral allegories with puritan inspirations. The themes of his works contain evil and sin of humanity. It also gives moral message and deep psychological complexity.

      “The Scarlet Letter - A Romance” is an 1850 work of fiction. It starts from the custom house. The setting of the novel is 17^th century. It has a deep theme of legalism, sin and guilt. The novel presents the space between materialism to dreaminess. Hester Prynne is the protagonist female character of the novel and Arthur Dimmsdale is the male character. The novel contains theme of sin and its belief. Hester and Arthur commits adulatory and the novel revolve around their sin and guil with repentance. We can compare the situation of Hester with Eve and Puritan society as the place of God who punishes her for disobedience.

           In the novel the main symbol is letter “A” in scarlet colour. It was the letter which was placed on the bosom of Hester and she also considered Pearl (her little daughter) as the sign of her sin. She repeatedly reminds her and Arthur that she was the result of her sin, as Hester said that,

“She is my happiness! She is my torture none the less! She is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved”

Pearl also challenges her father to accept his deed,

“Wilt thou stand here with mother and me. To-morrow noontide?”

       Hawthorne has talked about two kind of guilt. One is of Hester and her repentance and another is Arthur’s guilt, which is not visible and his suffering caused his death. He confesses his suffering by telling Hester that,

“I charge thee to speak out the name of fellow sinner and fellow sufferer”

For detailed explanation of themes – Click here

The Birthday Party - Harold Pinter

The Birthday Party

-        Harold Pinter

      Harold Pinter was a Nobel prize winning English playwright, screenplay writer, director and actor. He has directed and acted in radio, stage television and film productions. The Birthday Party is the second full length play by Pinter and also performed frequently. He was famous for “Comedy of Menace” in his plays. His use of pause and silence is very significant in this play.

        “The Birthday Party” has a setting of a single room. There are few characters and their background is not described by the writer. Pinter has used extreme noise and silence for menace effect. Characters are violating each other by weapon of words. In “Waiting for Godot” there was

“Nobody comes, nobody goes, its awful”

And in this play we can say that,

“Something happens, someone comes, and someone goes but who we don’t know.”

        The play contains theme of absurdity by language, silence and pause, focus on trivial things, game of memory and hidden identity of characters. There is a use of broad comedy in the play by the character of Meg and Stanley. The characters use to change their name and presents mystery. As we can read in the interrogation scene where Goldberg asks Stanley about his identity,

Goldberg: why have you changed your name?

Stanley: because I have forgotten the other one.

Goldberg: what is your name now?

Stanley: Joe Soap

        He another theme is mystery and ambiguity. All characters are mysterious regarding their identity but the most two mysterious characters are Stanley and Goldberg. As Goldberg said in the play that,

“All my life I have said the same, play up play up and play the game”

       

There is important dialogue by Petey in the play about the artist and society which he tells Stanley,

“Petey (broken) Stan, don’t let them tell you what to do.”