A comparison of two stories, a confession found.
In both stories, the murderer himself is conveying his movements and mannerisms before and after committing the crime making it a first person narration.
The opening paragraph of "A confession" delivers a significant amount of information telling the reader a little about the back round life of the killer, thus is the same with "A Tell Tale Heart," although we are not given as much information about his life, just of the feelings felt by him surrounding the murder.
The tone of the two stories is completely different, "A Confession" Is written in a blunt, unenthusiastic, seemingly monotone manner with a long, drab sentence structure, which is fairly understandable being that he is to be executed the following day. "I speak of myself as if I had passed from the world; for while I write this my grave is digging, and my name is written in the black book of death." This differs greatly to that of "A Tell Tale Heart" where we find short, snappy sentences full of eccentricity and bizarreness. How, then am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily, how calmly I can tell the whole story", these two quotes have a contrasting effect on the audience, "A confession" is written almost as though to make the audience feel sorry for him. Whereas "A Tell Tale Heart" is written to portray the fact that the he actually believes that it is the necessary thing to do, he actually believes that he is being clever and sly, leading a reader to believe he is mad. These two effects are completely different.
In both stories the victims pose no threat whatsoever to their killers, it seems most peculiar that they are pursued by some deep-rooted personal vendetta against them, In this way "A Tell Tale Heart" and "A Confession" are relatively similar. As is the array of calmness conveyed by them both as the stories unfold. .
The victim of "A Confession" is, oddly, the nephew of his murderer! The victim of "A Tell Tale Heart" is an elderly man, an acquaintance of his who lives in the same house! The motives for the two killings are different in many ways, but a vague connection can be detected, as both motives are as peculiar as each other.