What makes a story different from a tale lies in the author’s choice of characterization. When we have little physical detail about the character as is Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” the story becomes more of a tale. In a tale, it is possible to remove almost all of the physical detail about the character and still achieve the same effect. If you remove the known detail, …showed first 75 words of 392 total…

…showed last 75 words of 392 total…become abstractions that exist only in our minds. They do not have real life counterparts. By placing more emphasis on plot than characterization, Poe and Hawthorne were able to create a tale in which the characters only exist in the readers mind and the story becomes more of a tale. However, Melville was able to create characters that seem to escape the readers mind and the plot is moved forward through examination of these characters.