The villainous protagonists from Poe's stories, "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado", are quite similar in their murderous ways. Both killers are deceptively devious in the manner they go about achieving a certain amount of trust between themselves and their ill-fated victims. The two men had shown an eerie likeness in their homicidal cunningness; however, their display of behavior varied as well. Their thought process varied. And their motivations differed. The outcome of each would also take them to completely altered fates.

Both Montressor and the nameless anti-hero of "Tell Tale Heart"(Poe writes this character completely from the first person narrative, never mentioning his name), make a conscious effort to befriend their prey in the time leading up to the attacks. Montressor's prey is a loud, brash man by the name Fortunato. While the victim being stalked in "Tell...