What are the differences and similarities between Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado"?

It's fun and easy to compare these two classic American horror short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado.

SIMILARITIES

• A mentally unstable narrator and protagonist


• Protagonists who narrate to an unknown character (or directly to the reader)


• Brutal murders in the final conclusion


• Settings at night and in the dark


• Gothic settings


• Underground locations


• Unspecified reasons for the murders


• Murder victims with deformity or weakness


• Protagonist exhibits love and kindness in days before murder


• Only two primary characters--protagonist and antagonist

DIFFERENCES

• One protagonist/murderer with a guilty conscience (TT-TH) and one with a clear conscience (TCOA).


• One murderer is caught (TT-TH) and one is not (TCOA).


• One victim is old and defenseless (TT-TH) and the other is relatively youthfu (TCOA).


• One murderer mutilates the body (TT-TH) and the other leaves his victim to die on his own (TCOA).


• One murderer is "nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous (TT-TH) while the other remains calm throughout.(TCOA).