“As batidas desse coração horrendo”: a culpa nos contos “1922”, de Stephen King, e “O Coração Delator”, de Edgar Allan Poe

Abstract

This article aimed to analyze in a comparative and interdisciplinary way, through bibliographical research, the complexity of the question of guilt in the short stories ''1922'', by Stephen King, and ''The Tell-Tale Heart'', by Edgar Allan Poe. The article introduced the general characteristics of American Gothic literature, such as the monstrous character, the locus horribilis and the ghostly presence of the past through Botting's work (2014), as well as the analysis of the literary elements inserted in the works, using the philosophical and psychological theories of Sartre (2007), Kierkegaard (1979), Jung (2015), Freud (2011) to explore the genesis of guilt in the characters' psyche. The existentialist ideas of Sartre were used; Jung's writings on the collective unconscious and Freud's concept of Superego and Kierkegaard's concepts about guilt, anguish as a factor inherent to the existence of being and his idea about Despair. It was concluded that in "The Tell-tale Heart", the guilt is immediate and overwhelming, while in "1922" it is more gradual and subtle in its manifestation. Both narratives emphasize that it is impossible to run away from past mistakes and hide individual shortcomings.