Foreshadowing In The Black Cat

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“The Black Cat” By Edgar Allen Poe Most people when they see a black cat they walk the opposite direction and do it very quickly. People think that black cats bring bad luck when you see them, which is why people use them during Halloween. Some historians trace superstitions about black cats back to the Middle Ages. At that time, some women were accused of witchcraft and practicing black magic. Many of these women had cats as companions, so they became guilty by association. The word black magic and black cat made this animal, into a thing nobody wants to have or be near. Also, in ancient Egyptians times, a person caught killing a cat could face a the death penalty. In “The Black Cat” the cat is loved and described as intelligent and beautiful. …show more content…

It will change and fade away until there is nothing good left. “The cat was a very large and beautiful animal. He was black, black all over, and very intelligent. He was so intelligent that my wife often laughed about what some people believe: some people believe that all cats that all black cats are evil, enemies in a cat’s body” (Poe 1). This is when he loves the animals and his wife and nothing evil is in him which is foreshadowing what is going to happen. In the story the narrator is about to see/feel the first bit of evil takes him over, and he starts to hurt the black cat. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame. …show more content…

He went from loving and caring about the cat to almost killing it which is changing how the reader is interpreting the story. The last paragraph is about when the narrator is not any more good and he has done derating. “He followed me everywhere, getting under my feet all the time. When I sat down, he always sat under my chair” (Poe 2). “During the day, the animal never left me. At night he woke me up nearly every hour” (Poe 3). The narrator has deteriorated and there is no good in him and he is not himself anymore. This also shows how he went from loving and caring about animals to not also saying he is not himself. Some may argue that the color black is showing the deteriorating. Sure the color represents deteriorating and slowly fading away but the cat reflects more than the color does by itself. The color in life means with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. It says nothing about fading or anything. The cat keeps on coming back even after Pluto dies another cat comes back. The cat never leaves him alone which makes him slowly fade and

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