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Maura T., Nick H., Itzel R.

Conflict: Man vs. Man

Good

The Birthmark, The Tell Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado-

The narrators or main characters murdered people who were close to them while chasing satisfaction for their own obsessions/relief from personal torment

Themes:

Obsession:

The Birthmark- Alymer is obsessed with Georgiana’s imperfection (her birthmark), which in turn drives both Alymer and Georgiana insane with the need to get rid of her birthmark.

The Tell Tale Heart- The narrator of the Tell Tale Heart has an obsession with the old man’s blue eye. He believes it to be supernatural in that the eye can see into his heart. He then is driven mad with the desire to be rid of the eye.

The Cask of Amontillado- Montessor is obsessed with getting revenge on Fortunato for  insulting him, and he must do it in a specific manner so Fortunato understands that Montessor is intentionally inflicting ill-will upon him.

Human Fallibility:

The Birthmark- Georgiana’s birthmark is an imperfection on her otherwise “perfect” face

The Tell Tale Heart- The old man’s eye is glazed over and a light blue, possibly indicating some level of blindness in that eye.

The Cask of Amontillado- Fortunato above all else is a fool, he may not mean to insult others or if he does so intentionally it is likely meant as a jest but he doesn’t recognize that his harsh words may seriously insult/hurt others.

Interest in the Supernatural:

The Birthmark- Potions to fix imperfection, live forever, cure ailments

The Tell Tale Heart- beating heart after death, the ability to see into one’s soul, hearing voices of Heaven and Hell

The Cask of Amontillado- Montessor screaming in agony over an insult while Fortunato is literally being buried alive (insult is worse than death?) - I'm not sure this qualifies as interest in the supernatural, however, a fascination with death is definitely apparent as evidenced by the extensive catacombs.

Personal Torment:

The Birthmark- the birthmark MUST be fixed in order for them to be happy

The Tell Tale Heart- the narrator is racked with guilt over the old man’s murder to the point where he turns himself in

The Cask of Amontillado- Fortunato’s insult dug into Montessor so deeply he needed to kill Fortunato to get retribution BUT Montessor thought of Fortunato and his death up until he laid on his own deathbed. Some argue that precisely because Montresor cannot get over and in fact, dwells on the murder, he really never accomplished his goal - as he can't ever get away from Fortunato (in his head), not even on his death bed.

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Name: Gianna Colantuono, Guilermo Juarez, Abraham Alvarez

The Black Cat and the tell-tale heart

Dark/gothic romanticism

Theme: Being blind to reality and human fallibility.
Good -  other themes?

Another theme- obsession (with eye evil)
Theme: Notion of Guilt -

Contrast the different motives of each narrator. While both are unreliable, does one protagonist garner more sympathy from you than the other?

Conflict: Man vs Man both ended up killing in the end
Is Man vs. Self, Man vs Society present?

Theme: Gender inequity- women were mistreated

Both main characters are psychologically insane

Internal pressure/guilt

Within both of the stories written by Edgar Allen Poe they share a common theme of obsession with the evil eye. This symbolizes the lack of seeing straight - or clearly. Misapprehending reality due to clouded vision or damaged vision - With this said both of the characters show signs of being psychotic. They have internalized pressure with themselves to take part in the actions they do.
The narrator of the Tell Tale heart seems to have more of a conscience about his deed than the narrator of The Black Cat.
Both may be considered psychotic, however, a psychopath does not ever feel guilty, so we definitely have that in Black Cat. Questionable in The Tell Tale Heart.

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Angelina Panzeca, Isabella Panzeca, Brianna Russo, Freddie March (Group 4)

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Angelina Panzeca, Isabella Panzeca, Brianna Russo, Freddie March (Group 4)

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The Black Cat- Edgar Allen Poe

The Birthmark- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Elements of Dark Romanticism

Good. There is some argument for Man Vs. Self in these stories. However, I'm having trouble seeing Man Vs. Self as a theme common to these stories in terms of the characters' motivations and drives.

Man as God - possible, but the protagonist of Black Cat, goes back and forth, while Aylmer does not seem to waiver in his determination.

Theme: Obsession/Man vs. Self
Having trouble seeing this a common theme of both stories with what you've got here.

The Birthmark-Nathaniel Hawthorne

Obsession with the idea of his wife’s appearance vs. the reality of her appearance

Infatuation with flaws/imperfection provokes evil actions

Exaggerated metaphors to represent how he feels about her AKA believing the birthmark is a sin

Love for science triumphs love for his wife

No remorse for killing wife

Man vs. Self- He is obsessed with the birthmark (Ex: dreams of it)  - He does not grow from the experience, but his obsession does make him try to do things that he is not sure he can do - he has been a failure in the physical sciences, so why is he experimenting on his wife?

The Dark Cat-Edgar Allen Poe

Obsession with animals specifically Pluto

Fine line between reality and what he see through his eyes

The animals can't trust him, should we?

Pathological Liar/Can’t recall accurate details

Alcoholism provokes his actions and attitude

Love for violence triumphs the repercussions

Nonchalant towards the abuse of his wife and animals

No remorse for killing his wife and animals

I'm still not convinced this conflict exists in this story:

Man vs. Self- Blames his unconscious soul for carrying out these actions (Ex: saying his original soul came out and took the cat’s eye out) He claims he was possessed by a demon and his soul "seemed, at once, to take its flight from [his] body". And in the next paragraph he claims his "soul remained untouched." Page 5. This protagonist never takes responsibility for anything he does. Possibly - Man vs. Self in that he says he fights against alcohol, but even that is left up to question. At one point he elevates animals over "mere man" Page 4, and then calls himself an image of a  "High God" compared to a "brute beast/animal"  Page 10.

A man vs. man conflict in which both protagonists abuse their respective spouses is a mutual conflict that can be expanded upon.

Man vs. Self as a common conflict in these 2 stories is going to take more textual evidence and argument to convince me that it is a valid position to take.

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Sam Dulle, Charlie Smith, Dalton Frazier

Edgar Allen Poe- Romanticism

Tell Tale Heart

Cask of Amontillado

The Black Cat
Good, but some terms are being confused here:

Common Elements:

Common Theme Insanity vs Evil -

Common Literary Device - Heavy use of Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is used for many different purposes; however, its target is always the audience. It is a technique used to change the perception of the audience by providing them with more knowledge than to some or all of actual characters involved. Depending on how it is used, it can serve as an element for humor, fear, tension, excitement, suspicion or, most commonly, suspense and anticipation. Furthermore, by revealing clues to the plotline, foreshadowing works as a tool to help the audience feel more invested in a story.

Common Theme  Element of Literature  1st Person POV

POV

Tell Tale Heart- 1st person

Cask of Amontillado- 1st person

Black Cat- 1st person

Poe’s use of the 1st person point of view across all his stories furthers the reader’s understanding of the character, his motives, and possible themes, including foreshadowing.  Foreshadowing is not a theme it is a literary device - see above.

Virtually in all three stories, the character’s introduction as insane (thus, a 1st person POV_ Unreliable Narrator) instantly foreshadows the inevitable violence to follow in the story.

Warped Devotion

Another Common Theme: Violence - Man's ability to commit unspeakable acts of evil. What is a human capable of doing to another being?
The Black Cat

Love and abuse towards animals

Tell Tale Heart

Attention to detail in the planning and murder of his old neighbor.

Cask of Amontillado

Obsession with revenge and the defense of Montresor’s family name

Conflicts

Man V Self

Degree of insanity in every protagonist in the three stories

Man V Man

Someone is killed in all three stories

Man V Society - How does society deal with those members who deviate from the norms it expects?

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Literary elements/devices and themes/conflicts: (Group 1)

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Literary elements/devices and themes/conflicts: (Group 1)

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Julia Kostadinova, Nicole Antoniak, Sarahi Murillo -
The Tale Tell Heart by Edgar Allan Poe and the story of The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne are both relevant to the themes  have Conflicts of man vs man and man vs self.

Good Theme from Man vs. Self Man vs. Man conflicts.

The Tale Tell Heart narrator was is very obsessive towards the old man's eyes EYE. Word choice is important in English. Especially when talking about symbolism. One eye being blind is different than both eyes, plus it is inaccurate to state otherwise.
He was overly obsessive, enough to create the effect of him killing the old man. Which resulted in the narrator/protagonist to battle with himself of guilt when he killed the old man.

Note: Always write about literature in the PRESENT tense, as you are engaging with the text at present, not in the past.

As for the Birthmark, Aylmer, the protagonist,  main character, was is obsessed with his wifes imperfect birthmark upon her cheek. His obsession with the birthmark and to make his wife perfect, ended up killing her as well.
THEME: God Complex -
Aylmer was IS then in conflict with himself and how much power he can wield behold, he would think and compare himself to god. How is this  similar to the Tell Tale Heart? What other theme does this story share with the Tell Tale Heart?
COMMON THEME: Obsession to the point of destruction.

Both stories the main characters weren’t obsessed with the people, but with their physical features.

What does this say about the way in which humans perceive one another's physical attributes? How does society shape individuals to value and disvalue certain things? Do people have their own "Reader Response" to people's physical features? Do people recognize that they subconsciously pass judgment on others based on their own interpretations of their experience? How does literature help us to see that in these two stories?

These physical features were so prominent that it consumed the characters' minds.

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Nathan Zoumboulis / Josie ZIelinski / Annie Mcgrath/ Ben Leach / Lizeth Luqueno /Dominic Iannantone/
The Black Cat, The Tell Tale Heart, and The Birthmark can all be closely connected and compared through their themes.

Good exploration of one theme - with some comments:

A prevalent theme that can be found in all three stories revolve around an extreme obsession.
In The Tell Tale Heart the narrator is obsessed with killing the old man due to distrust and dislike of the man’s eye. He then stalks the old man for many hours and many days which shows an odd obsession. (Do not over summarize -we have all read the story.) After he stores the old man in the floorboard he starts to hear the old man’s heartbeat which leads to ratting himself out to the police. He is also obsessed with committing the perfect crime and takes pride in it as well.
He argues his rational planned-out murdering of the old man is the reason he is not insane. He does not see that a rational telling of such a heinous murder negates his claim completely.
In The Black Cat we see that the narrator SAYS he loves animals and has trouble navigating in regular society. He develops an obsession with animals due to his lack of social skills with other people. After the cat bit him one day, he became obsessed with mutilating the cat. He feels unloved by the only thing that ever loved him. - Do you think he really ever loved the cat?
Eventually, he stops mutilating the cat and brutally hangs him from a tree. When he receives another cat he attempts to kill that one as well because it was a reminder of what he did to Pluto. What is the reminder? The white fur on the new cat resembles the gallows, where he now awaits hanging.
Once his house burns down an image of Pluto is burned into the wet plaster and this drives him to further insanity. This obsession drives him so far that he murders his wife when she attempts to stop him from murdering the new cat.

In The Birthmark, Aylmer starts to find flaws on Georgiana, especially the birthmark on her cheek. He starts to obsess over it and keeps bringing it up to his wife to the point that she herself starts to find it horrible. She starts to find herself ugly and  unworthy of living even though she never had a problem with it before. This results in Georgiana agreeing to Aylmer doing whatever he pleases to get rid of the birthmark, resulting in her death. All in all, these stories definitely portray the theme of extreme obsession through the actions of their protagonists.

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Rip Van Winkel -
Washington Irving
The Birthmark -
Nathanial Hawthorne
Tell Tale Heart/Cask of Amontillado/The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe

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Sheer Terror
Personal Torment
Graphic Grotesque
Horrifying deals w/Macabre
Supernatural
Characters are usually
maniacs/vampires

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Human Fallibility  - Imperfect
Psychological effects of guilt or sin
Obsession
Judgment/punishment
Loss
Mind/Spirit - Duality of Man - what is the true nature of man? Inherently evil or good?

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Distrust of Civilization
Love of Nature
Interest in the Supernatural
Nostalgia
Individual Freedom

Romantic Hero
Fond of Nature
In search of a higher truth
Distrustful of women
Childlike

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Literary Elements and Devices in each story: 

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Literary Elements and Devices in each story: 

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Author and Titles - List the stories we have read and their authors. 

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Author and Titles - List the stories we have read and their authors. 

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What are the elements of Dark Romanticism? 

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What are the elements of Dark Romanticism? 

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What are the elements of Gothic Romanticism? 

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What are the elements of Gothic Romanticism? 