The paper demonstrates that while
writing around the same period, Washington Irving and Edgar Alan Poe illustrate the difference
between the old tradition of story telling and the modern short story. It shows that in Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," while the characters amuse us, it is the twist of the
narrative that is the crucial element. Contrasted to this is Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart," which also offers a twist, but also provides a story line that is subordinate to the more modern psychological portrait of the character. The paper also investigates the similarities between both stories such as first-person narrative and the witholding of information to create dramatic tension.