Authors include universal themes in their writing pieces. One of the many common themes is guilt. To better illustrate a theme, writers integrate different elements of writing. For example, in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Last Rung on the Ladder” by Stephen King, the universal theme of guilt is portrayed through the behavior of the characters. The characters are guilty of their own actions, therefore, fear builds up within them. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” an anonymous narrator hides the fact that he murders an old man with “the eye of a vulture,” but later on reveals his crime as a result of his guilt. “The Last Rung on the Ladder” discusses Larry’s flashback to the barn incident with his sister, Kitty. When Larry learns…show more content… Poe and King both use a different style of word choice to demonstrate how fear grows within both characters. For example, Poe uses vocabulary that is more complex. After the police officers observe the old man’s house, the speaker “…fancie[s] a ringing in [his] ears…The ringing [becomes] more distinct…it continue[s] and gain[s] definiteness…” (Poe 4). Poe uses the word “fancied” to emphasize the narrator’s anxiety of the old man being alive. On the other hand, King uses a simple word choice so Larry’s feelings can easily be understood. In addition to vocabulary, both writers use character development. In Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator is a dynamic character because he starts as a person wanting to murder an old man. By the end of the story, he is changed by his guilt because he decides to admit his crime. King also created Larry as a dynamic character. Larry is always considerate of his sister as a young boy, but as he grows and matures, he becomes self-centered. When he learns about Kitty’s death, his guilt forms and he starts to fear that she thinks he doesn’t care about her loneliness. Different vocabulary and figures of speech are included in Poe and King’s stories to display how the guilt of the main characters created
