The Black Cat Analysis

us, no matter how docile and humane our disposition might appear. In this story, the narrator portrays a man who is fond of animals, had a tender heart, and is happily married. Within several years of his marriage, his general temperament and character make a radical

Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. “The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural world.” (Womack). Poe uses many of the American Gothic characteristics such as emotional intensity, superstition, extremes in violence, the focus on a certain object and foreshadowing lead the reader through a series of events that are horrifying

Edgar was a child who was very well behaved and very fond of animals, he loved everything about them. When he married his wife Virginia at a very young age he was happy to know she loved animals as much as he did. Edgar had several animals but his favorite was his black cat Pluto. Pluto and Edgar got along very well, until Edgar became older he began to drink everyday and would lose his temper and become moody and even violent sometimes. His wife and pets noticed the change in how he was acting lately, but slowly the drinking got worse. After the drinking was terrible and was drunk all the time he became very violent, one evening edgar came home from the bar and felt that Pluto was avoiding him and he picked the cat up by the throat and cut

The events that unfolded in Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The black Cat,” are all due to one person, the narrator. It is because of his Mental state, being an alcoholic, and being abusive to his wife and pets that the fault lies heavily on the narrator. What this paper will entail is all three of the reasons why it is the narrator's fault for what happens in the story and it will come to a conclusion based off the findings in the story.

In Poe’s short story “The Black Cat”, the narrator’s insanity is shown as violence being used towards his loved ones as a problem-solver of his frustration. Throughout the story, there are many times where he finds himself in aggravating situations. His craziness shines especially at these times, as he automatically uses assault to fix his problems. As a sane person might lose control at times and hit something, the narrator seems to always take out his frustration with cruel actions towards his wife and animals. For

"I grew day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others" (Poe 671). Poe had a very complicated relationship with transcendentalism, and you can clearly see this rocky relationship in two of his works. One of these works is "The Black Cat". A brief summary of this short story; the narrator of this story is an insane man who knows he's about to die. The story talks about a cat that he used to have, named Pluto. He was very close to the cat until he starts to abuse his wife and other animals. The cat no longer likes the narrator, then the cat gets hung. While this happens the narrator's house burns down. Later a new cat comes alone, much like Pluto, and at first, he has a close relationship with this cat. Once it's noticed the cat only has one eye, he hates the cat. Later the narrator strikes his wife on the head with an axe, and hides her body. What he didn't know is while burying the body of his wife, the cat ends up with her. The police then show up just to look around, and the cat starts making noise. The police hear this and break down the wall, and here they find the cat and the man's dead wife. The other literary work that refutes transcendentalism is the poem "Annabel Lee". A condensed summary of that poem; the narrator of the poem, and Annabel Lee fell in love while they are young. Even after Annabel Lee passes, the narrator does not give up on the love they shared. After reading "Annabel Lee" and "The Black Cat", it is clear that Poe denies many concepts of transcendentalism. In looking for the answers to life's questions, Poe relies on the idea that human intuition is harmful. The narrator in "Annabel Lee" alludes to this selfish intuition when his obsession with himself and the idea of love causes him to lose his Annabel Lee. Then again in "The Black Cat", he focusses purely on finding answers within the dark. Transcendentalist does not believe in a dark intuition, they like to look at nature and its light side for the answers to life's questions.

Pluto watched from a monitor at the new subject in his trial. It was an elderly man near his 60s with a frail frame and thin white hair in a light patch around the back of his scalp. Through the camera, Pluto observed the man enticed by the planted shrub made for the sole purpose of luring humans who acted upon their emotion. As soon as the elderly man picked the shrub, the ground cracked open and took him into the depths where Pluto's kingdom resided. Seized into the underworld, Pluto asked for the man's name. The man frowned and shook his head, “I have no reason to tell you anything about me. I've learned by now that I should not waste my breath on people who do not know what value my breath is.” Pluto cocked his head to the side slightly,

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe is a horror story of an insane man telling us of his crimes. The narrator was just a regular man with a drinking problem until one day when he came home and gouged out his cat’s eye. But his hostility only got worse, to the point where he hung the cat in the back yard. His actions only further prove that he wasn’t in his right mind when he committed these crimes.

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe is about an unnamed narrator who claims to be sane, but ironically tells the story of his transformation from a compassionate individual into a murderer. The narrator lives with his caring wife and many pets, including a large black cat named Pluto. The friendship between the narrator and Pluto changes when the narrator heavily indulges in alcohol. His intemperance takes a toll on his psychological well being, as it sparks in him a spirit of perverseness: doing something that is wrong just for the sake of being wrong. This force, in the same way, allows the narrator to deal with his drunkenness through “logical” reasoning, which motivates him to murder Pluto.

The narrator of this story is telling his story from jail,and he wants to tell the story the right way. He starts by describing what kind of child he was when he was younger. He was very kind, and nice and he loved animals. Later in life he gets married to a girl that also loves animals and has many things in common with him. When they move in together they have a house full of animals, and one being a pure black cat being among his wife's favorite. The big black cat’s name is Pluto. By looking at the plot of the story, one can see how this one black cat turned the narrator's world upside down.

In the beginning of the book the narrator and main character of the story was kind and mild. In the narrator’s past he has always loved animals since the beginning. He decides to get married to a woman he dearly loves at a young age and wants to make her experience the joys of having a pet or animal to play around and hang out with. Out of all the wild animals around the world and classical American pets, the narrator decides to pick this one cat and named the cat Pluto. Even though the character may love Pluto but he soon suffers from mood swings because of his use of alcohol. These mood swings tend to be very violent affecting the people around him as well such as his wife and his pet cat, Pluto.

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe is one of Poe’s greatest literary works that embodies his signature themes of death, violence, and darkness. Poe’s main character begins his narration of his horrible wrongdoings regarding them as a “series of mere household events” (Poe 705). However, this is where Poe’s satire and irony begins and the story progresses to show the deranged mindset of this character as he tries to justify his actions. As the main character proceeds to rationalize his crime, Poe is able to convey a sense of irony through his use of foreshadowing, metaphors and symbolism.

Edgar Allen Poe is infamous for his works hat features violence, madness, death among other dark themes. His texts “The Black Cat” and “The Telltale Heart” are not different. Both of the narrators committed murder and justify their reasoning behind their madness and their heinous crimes. The former killed his wife in an attempt to kill the black cat and the latter killed the old man because of his evil eye. They both attempted to hide the bodies, but ultimately reveal their crimes due to their insanity. The readers perceive the narrators’ actions as an act of madness and violence. Deliberate cruelty is the intentional infliction of pain and suffering upon someone. Poe demonstrates the deliberate cruelty of the narrators instead of their madness. In this essay, I will point out the specific instances of deliberate cruelty in both texts. He reveals the narrators’ deliberate cruelty by showing their rationale despite illustrating their loving relationships with their victims. Poe depicts the cruelty through not only the selective details that illustrate the stable minds of the narrators, but also the actions that both protagonists exhibit in the texts. This is important because people normally characterize these actions as madness. This generalization of cruelty as madness contribute to the stigmization of mentally ill people. However, careful reading of both texts shows otherwise.

Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most influential and important writers of the nineteenth century. He was the first writer to try to make a living only writing. One of Poe’s most popular short stories, “The Black Cat”, is considered horror fiction or gothic fiction which Poe is known for in his books and short stories because it was a popular genre during his days. In Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat”, Poe uses a horror fiction genre, a mentally deranged and evil narrator/character, and symbolism of death to make a thrilling story with tons of suspense, drama, and gruesome detail.

In The Black Cat, the narrator admits that it was an “unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself – to offer violence to its own nature – to do wrong for the wrong’s sake only…” that made him carry out the merciless killing of his most favourite pet.