Please could you help. Why are the characters evil? in The Black Cat & tell Tale Heart

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2002

Answers

Drink and madness respectively. The disorder causes wildness, extreme fear and anger. They think they are striking out against evil instead of seeing their own affliction. Making others pay for their weakness of mind is extreme in these two characters and leads to their own downfall as, once the primary victim is dead, conscience surfaces in a frightful form from within their own psyche.

The "evil of the characters" might be missing the point of these tales from Poe's point of view though. The situation, the trap of the rebellious act and trying to bury memory and conscience was more the concern. It reveals a fundamental belief Poe had about the world and this existence. The characters typify the romantic hero of extreme sensitivity crossing the borders of reality almost into the supernatural.

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2002