Examples Of Illusions In The Black Cat

Throughout the short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe, the concept of illusions can be seen. Illusions tend to be something that deceives a person by its false sense of reality. This is verified in this short story when the young man, also known as the narrator, is constantly consumed by alcohol when his reality slowly becomes more and more distorted. The narrator, who is never actually given a name, married at a young age. The man and his wife both have a love for animals, having many pets. Although one particular pet catches the majority of the young man’s attention, an all-black cat named Pluto. With the decreasing of the man’s control toward the alcohol, he eventually submits into the illusions causing him to lash out in violent rages towards his animals and even his wife. An important scene that depicts this concept of illusions would be when the man’s house had caught up in flames and when the house had been extinguished the only part of the house that was left perfectly intact had a remarkable image of a cat with a rope around its neck. The young man was left curious and terrified as to if this were a coincidence or if there was a deeper meaning to this situation. It is let to be determined if it is possible that the young man is being deceived by his own mind throughout the entire short story.

The man would drink constantly and

Rather they were more friends than the young man would consider of a man. One night when the man had returned home from a night out of drinking, he wanted to play with Pluto. The man had determined that Pluto was avoiding his presence and grabbed him rather viciously. In turn, Pluto had bit the man on the hand due to his fright of the rough action. It might as well have been an illusion that Pluto would be purposely avoiding the man. This would give the man a reason to allow his inner demons to come out. This incident results in the man cutting out Pluto’s