I spent almost the entirety of this summer in my apartment since all of my much-less-boring travelling plans were canceled due to COVID. And by almost I mean only getting out to the nearby pharmacy to stock up on food and essentials. Most of the unanticipated abundance of free-time was spent on 2 electronics and numerous coding projects that I’ve wanted to do for quite a while but couldn’t for various reasons, mostly the lack of time. The rest was killed on binging YouTube, Netflix, and Crunchyroll, though I can only remember the plot of about half of the shows that I watched. Overall, it was a somewhat productive Summer in terms of self-learning with a sprinkle of mindless fun.

 

Regarding the stories, I enjoyed “The Tell-Tale Heart” more than “The Yellow Wallpaper.” While both stories depict main characters who suffer from a mental illness, they differ a lot in the writing style, setting, and the use of language. Poe strips the story of excess detail which highlights the murderer’s obsession with the old man’s eye, the heartbeat, and his own claim to sanity. Short, simple phrases, which are often abruptly interrupted expose the nervousness of the main character, while descriptions of his feelings immerse the reader in the full horror of the events. “The Yellow Wallpaper” on the other hand is more about nuances with its abundance of synonyms, adjectives, and detailed descriptions that all aid in the buildup of the story. Unlike “The Tell-Tale Heart,” it doesn’t just show us the madness of the main character, it demonstrates the conditions (or lack thereof) that led to its development. But even though it does so with a great success, its creeping progression and predictable and unfulfilling ending just wasn’t to my liking compared to the deeper atmosphere of “The Tell-Tale Heart.”