This paper compares and contrasts these two stories which each involve an element of fundamental
fear that is, in essence,
the
fear of fear itself, for in each tale it is an unfounded, irrational fear of what is unknown or greatly misunderstood. In both "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "Big Black Good Man", this fear blossoms into paralleling points of obsessive paranoia and panic that end in similar situations of self-punishment brought on by individual perceptions of guilt and responsibility.