To what extent do the short stories The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe focus on the evil side of human nature that remains unchanged by passing time?

In his stories, Edgar Allan Poe revealed the evil side of human nature by emphasizing the ferocity and violence that man can lead into. As history has witnessed the evil side of human nature has remained unchanged by passing time. With that aspect, the stories of Poe in which horror is associated with the feelings like revenge, agony, rancor, jealousy and even with mental illnesses, still retain the validity after a hundred and fifty years. This study analyzes how the short stories The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe focus on the evil side of human nature. All three protagonists cannot forestall their basic drives and surrender to the dark side of their personalities. They commit similar crimes but react in different ways. Initial feeling of triumph is the same for all protagonists; however, their approaches show difference. While the protagonists of The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart cannot endure the burden of murder and confess the crime, the protagonist of The Cask of Amontillado cannot hear the voice of his conscience because of the intensity of the his jealousy. Also, in this study, the protagonists are compared with figures from recent history such as Hitler, Breivik, Gaddafi and Mubarak to show the unchanging nature of malignancy