Keep Calm and Don’t Kill People(Or Ravens)

By: Hamza Thange

People might feel very threatened by their surroundings, and respond in a way they think is best. Edgar Allan Poe’s life was a series of unfortunate events that he had to overcome. This may have contributed to the dark writing style in some of his literature. In particular, his short horror story, “The Tell-tale Heart” and his poem, “The Raven”, both share the main idea that people can get nervous and uneasy over extremely mundane things, then act recklessly and foolishly because of their paranoia. Other slightly smaller similarities can be noted, such as the reappearance of “The Tell-tale Heart’s” beating heart in “The Raven.”

In the beginning of each text, he main characters in both texts showed many clear signs of nervousness. The main character of “The Tell-tale Heart” was scared about killing the old man, then that the police could hear the heart beating and would arrest him. The speaker in “The Raven” was also scared, but it was because he answered a tapping noise at his door, only to find nothing there. Both times the fear was characterized by the rapid pounding of their hearts, a metaphor first found in, “The Tell-tale Heart” and reused in, “The Raven.” The heart, and nervousness in general, not being the focus of the poem is likely the reason that it receives a single line, while getting several sentences in Poe’s short story. The quote “there came to my ears a low dull quick sound, such a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart” shows how much emphasis was put on the main character’s nervousness in that story.

As soon as the nervous mood is set, the main characters  The actions that the main characters took differ in many ways, but are still somewhat similar. Both were acting as if they were in a weak mental state, with the speaker trying to talk to a random raven in his house and asking it profound questions about the afterlife and his lost love, and the main character getting scared of an eye that he has lived with for years, then killing one of his oldest friends and companions over it. As a result, the speaker lost his mind further as the raven took up permanent residence in his home, while the main character unintentionally turned himself in to the police and was likely convicted of premeditated murder. Neither was successful, as they both gave in to their fear and acted without thought.

Remaining calm is important in order to make the best decisions, as both “The Raven” and “The Tell-tale Heart” taught us. Both characters ended up worse than they started because of their hastiness. We need to think things over, because any decision we make in a state of fear is likely irrational and can cause more harm than good to us and the people around us.