The two stories, The Minister's Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Cask of Amontillado, written by Edgar Allan Poe, are both known to be examples of 19th century gothic horror. . Although both stories were written during the same time period and are of the same genre, they differ from each other. Writing is so broad that authors are able to describe a certain genre by focusing on different aspects of their writing. Hawthorne's story focuses on depicting an overarching message with heavy symbolism, while Poe's story is a tale more focused on the characterization of the narrator and his journey of revenge. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Minister's Black Veil is a story that could also be described as a parable. This could be said because Hawthorne has an underlying message in the story that he is trying to convey to his readers. The overall focus is on the minister, who wears a black veil after committing an unknown sin. The message conveyed here is that people are hypocrites; it is precisely because the minister's sin is visible through the veil that they judge him. However, simply because they do not have a visual representation of their own sins like the Minister, they seem to have forgotten them and act as if they are pure. “He could not walk down the street with peace of mind, so aware was he that the meek and the timid would turn away to avoid him, and that others would make it their duty to be bold enough to throw themselves in his path.” In this example, the townspeople go out of their way to avoid him or get in his way, which highlights their judgments. Hawthorne also uses a lot of symbolism in this story, a strong example being the veil the minister wears. “If I hide my face for sorrow, there is sufficient reason…and if I cover it for a secret sin, what mortal could not do the same? Hawthorne directly connects the veil to the secret sin in this example, showing the symbolism. While Hawthorne's story was more centralized toward structure, The Cask of Amontillado shifts toward the characterization of the narrator. The narrator of this story is clearly mad, as this example shows: “I had borne Fortunato's thousand wounds as best I could, but when he ventured to insult him, I swore revenge. » The fact that the narrator “endured thousands of wounds” from this Fortunato character, but only decided to take revenge when he insulted him, testifies to his madness. Additionally, in this example, the narrator uses hyperbole; exaggerating the number of times he was "hurt" by Fortunato, showing that even though the character has probably wronged him in the past, he needs to exaggerate to feel good about his revenge. Poe also uses a lot of irony in this story. An example would be: “And I, to your long life”. which is ironic because here Montresor is drinking in Fortunato's "long life", which readers know will not be very long at all because of his plot to seek revenge and murder him. The use of this irony further describes the narrator's madness. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay Both Hawthorne and Poe wrote similarly in terms of genre and time; however, their stories differ drastically. Hawthorne focuses on the symbolism and underlying messages of his story, while Poe tends to focus more on the..