Writing from jail the day before his execution, the unnamed narrator of “The Black Cat” says, “Mad would I be to expect” belief of the “wild, yet most homely narrative” which he describes. Like the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” he proclaims, “mad am I not,” but even he has a difficult time believing “a case where my very senses reject their own evidence.” Despite his claims of sanity, the narrator commits some truly deranged and psychotic acts of violence throughout the story, which are difficult to comprehend. The narrator may suffer from a mental illness, or he may not, but by his own admission, after several years of marriage, he developed a severe drinking problem, which likely altered his perception of reality, and contributed significantly …show more content…
He, his wife, and their servant barely escape with their lives, however all of their wealth and possessions are destroyed. The next day, when he visits the ruins, he finds that the wall behind his bed is still standing, and emblazoned upon it is the image of Pluto with a noose around his neck. In an attempt to rationalize this “apparition,” he logics that someone must have cut the animal down and thrown it through the window in an attempt to “arouse” him from sleep, and that the “falling of the other walls had compressed the victim of my cruelty into the substance of the freshly-spread plaster.” With the destruction of their home, the narrator and his wife, now destitute, are forced to move. While drinking at a “den of more than infamy,” he finds a large, black cat “closely resembling” Pluto, but bearing a large white splotch on his …show more content…
Refusing once again to take responsibility for his actions, the narrator blames the cat for the murder and vows to kill it. That night, he says, “I soundly and tranquilly slept; aye, slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul!” After several days, the police arrive to search the building, and once again find nothing. When the police have concluded and begin exiting the cellar, the narrator, like the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” foolishly draws attention to the hidden body, sealing his own fate. As he sits in prison, awaiting death, he attempts to downplay the incident by stating that his story is “a series of mere household events,” and questions, “Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?” as if the unfortunate events that have transpired could happen to anyone. He blames, in turn, “a fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured,” the “spirit of perverseness,” and, finally, the cat, without any sense of awareness of the role that his own choices
This large black cat, whom is named Pluto, happens to be his favorite out of all his pets. Keeping him to a higher standard than all of his other pets. The narrator even mentions that when his down fall with alcoholism started happening he would say terrible things to his wife. With his pets he “not only neglected, but ill-used them. For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him.”
Tell-Tale Heart, written by Edgar Allan Poe, depicts the inner conflict of a murderer as he retells his story of how he came to kill the old man as a means to prove his sanity. The story is told in the point of view of an unreliable narrator, of whom is greatly disturbed by the eye of a geriatric man. The eye in question is described as evil, irritating the narrator beyond his comprehension, to the point when he has no choice but to get rid of the vexation by destroying the eye. This short story is similar to The Black Cat, of which is also penned by Poe. In The Black Cat, the narrator, albeit unreliable, describes his wrongdoings to the reader. He tells his story of how he murdered his wife, killed one of the two cats, and trapped the other
The short story the “Black Cat” begins with the narrator of the story telling his side of events that have occurred throughout his life. When first being introduced to the narrator you can tell something is off with him. The narrator is originally a well-put together man he has a wife and many of different animals but has a much greater love for one of his animals named Pluto a black cat. As the life of the narrator goes on he falls into a drinking problem he cant stop drinking and when he does drink he gets violent. One night when
In his short story “The Black Cat,” Edgar Allan Poe uses the literary elements of foreshadowing, allusion, and symbolism in order to convey a message about the dangers of how alcoholism and mental illness can lead to domestic violence.
This need to maintain a subtle interaction with the outside world is further developed when he marries a woman of the same temperament. His ability to only have seemingly close relationships with animals becomes more complicated with the adoption of Pluto, a black cat. The choice of Pluto for a name is symbolic in itself, referring to the underworld and his black coloring, both foreshadow the chaos that is about to engulf this man, who is unprepared to deal with mental break down he is about to experience as his mind becomes compromised by his increasing dependence on
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the story of a woman spiralling into madness whilst her physician husband refuses to acknowledge that she has a "real" problem. On the other hand The Black Cat by Edgar Alan Poe is about a man who is initially fond of cats however as the plot progresses he becomes an alcoholic making him moody and violent, which lead him to torture and kills the animals and eventually also his wife. In Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Black Cat," symbolism is used to show the narrator’s capacity for violence, madness, and guilt .The recurring theme present in both these stories is that the main protagonists claim that they suffer or have been taken over by a form of madness. In this essay I shall examine the various symbolism used by the writer's to represent madness.
In "The Black Cat," the author, Edgar Allan Poe, uses a first person narrator who is portrayed as a maniac. Instead of having a loving life with his wife and pets, the narrator has a cynical attitude towards them due to his mental instability as well as the consumption of alcohol. The narrator is an alcoholic who takes out his own insecurities on his family. It can be very unfortunate and in some cases even disastrous to be mentally unstable. Things may take a turn for the worst when alcohol is involved, not only in the narrator's case, but in many other cases as well. Alcohol has numerous affects on people, some people may have positive affects while others, like the narrator in "The Black Cat," may have negative affects like causing physical and mental abuse to those he loved. The combination of the narrator's mental instability along with the consumption of alcohol caused the narrator to lose control of his mind as well as his actions leading him to the brink of insanity. Though the narrator is describing his story in hopes that the reader feels sympathy towards him, he tries to draw the attention to his abuse of alcohol to demonstrate the negative affects that it can take on your life as well as destroy it in the end.
In “The Tell Tale Heart” Edgar Allan Poe builds up suspense by guiding us through the darkness that dwells inside his character’s heart and mind. Poe masterfully demonstrates the theme of guilt and its relationship to the narrator’s madness. In this classic gothic tale, guilt is not simply present in the insistently beating heart. It insinuates itself earlier in the story through the old man’s eye and slowly takes over the theme without remorse. Through his writing, Poe directly attributes the narrator’s guilt to his inability to admit his illness and offers his obsession with imaginary events - The eye’s ability to see inside his soul and the sound of a beating heart- as plausible causes for the madness that plagues him. After reading the story, the audience is left wondering whether the guilt created the madness, or vice versa.
Furthermore, Poe’s plot development added much of the effect of shocking insanity to “The Black Cat.” To dream up such an intricate plot of perverseness, alcoholism, murders, fire, revival, and punishment is quite amazing. This story has almost any plot element you can imagine a horror story containing. Who could have guessed, at the beginning of the story, that narrator had killed his wife? The course of events in “The Black Cat’s” plot is shockingly insane by itself! Moreover, the words in “The Black Cat” were precisely chosen to contribute to Poe’s effect of shocking insanity. As the narrator pens these he creates a splendidly morbid picture of the plot. Perfectly selected, sometimes rare, and often dark, his words create just the atmosphere that he desired in the story.
He starts out by saying that he and his wife both have good hearts and both have a share of love for animals so that got pets of many different varieties. Though the narrator became quite fond of the cat more they name the cat Pluto, which is also the Roman mythological god of death and darkens. Little by little he goes in and out of madness, which some of it is alcohol induced because the narrator specifies that he would come in from his “flaunts” about town and get enraged with every pet and offered to beat his wife as well. It became really bad to where he would abuse the cat as well. One day when he picked the cat up, the cat bit him so in retaliation he gouged the cat 's eye out with a pen. The next day after he sobered up he became saddened and disgusted with his deed. The cat
The presence of the two cats in the tale allows the narrator to see himself for who he truly is. In the beginning the narrator explains that his “tenderness of heart made him the jest of his companions”. (251) He also speaks of his love for animals that has remained with him from childhood into manhood. However, Poe contradicts this description of the narrator when he seems to become annoyed with the cat that he claims to love so much. While under the influence of alcohol the narrator is “fancied that the cat avoided his presence”(250) and as a result decides to brutally attack the cat. This black cat symbolizes the cruelty received by slaves from whites. The narrator not only “deliberately cuts one of the cats eyes from the sockets” (250) but he also goes on to hang the cat. Once the narrator successfully hangs the cat the tale begins to take a very dark and gothic-like turn. The racism and guilt of the narrator continues to haunt him once he has killed the black cat. Th...
He brutally describes him stabbing the cats eye, "I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket"(p5) Pluto’s perspective of his master went from loving to fear and recognizing cruelty, experiencing both a literal and physiological change of vision. From then on Pluto sees his master differently, and sees the world differently as well in result of his now one eye. Additionally, the reader's eyes for his cat are sharpened and changed at this moment as well. The madness in the Black Cat then escalates when the narrator's hatred for Pluto consumed him, and he hangs him outside the garden.Mysteriously, when coming home drunk a few weeks after the murder of his cat, a black cat similar to Pluto appears in front of the narrator, missing an eye as well but has white fur on its stomach unlike Pluto. He brings the cat home in hope it will replace the cat he now misses and remorses for killing. Soon his liking for his cat turned to bitterness and hatred. The madness inside of him decreased with the death of Pluto, and returned with
...at the hands of his master. The mutilation of its eye, hanging it to death from a tree and killing his wife, which had shown the cat love. There are two interpretations you can take away from this story, the logic of guilt or supernatural fantasy. Which conclusion will you take?
Even after he has tried to kill the cat, or maimed it, it comes back to him, seemingly having the supernatural ability to stay alive, and the crazy desire to stay with him.
Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale, "The Black Cat," is a disturbing story that delves into the contrasts between reality and fantasy, insanity and logic, and life and death. To decipher one distinct meaning presented in this story undermines the brilliance of Poe's writing. Multiple meanings can be derived from "The Black Cat," which lends itself perfectly to many approaches of critical interpretation.