How Does Edgar Allan Poe Use Connotative Language In The Black Cat

A pattern in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” is the reliability and sanity of the narrator being deteriorated through the use of connotative language. Poe’s narrator is first-person, he communicated the sequence of events from his perspective to the reader. For a narrator to be unreliable, their personal bias must corrupt the accuracy of information being relayed. Connotative language encompasses the unspoken emotional implications and underlying contexts of a descriptive word. This connotative language pattern is used in reference to the cat on multiple occasions; the first time the narrator attacks his cat, upon realizing his second cat is beginning to resemble the first, and after he murders his wife. The pattern of increasing negative

connotative language in Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” illustrated the narrators spiral into insanity.
The first use of increasing negative connotative language is found at the beginning of the short story, when the narrator, in a drunken rage, attacks his cat.
One night, upon returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. 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, I tool from my waist-coat a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket! (18)
At the beginning of the quotation, the narrator denotatively addresses the animal as “the cat”/ After being bitten, the narrator switches from denotative label”ling to connotative language, describing it as a “poor beast”. By using the word “poor” the narrator is implying pity for the animal, while “beast” implies unpleasant and negative emotions. Through the consecutive use of pity and unpleasant connotative language, the reader can infer that, while the narrator feels pity, he has begun to harbour a dislike for the animal. This transition between neutral denotative and negative connotative language sparks the narrators spiral into insanity. As his reliability becomes skewed, the reader must begin to question the accuracy of information being given. This causes the reader to make misinformed inferences about the text.
After killing his cat, the narrator began to wish for a new one: “I went as far as to regret the loss of the animal, and to look about me .

. . for another pet of the same species, and of somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its place” (20). Upon finding a new cat, he instantly adopts it, however, the same hatred he had accumulated for the original quickly resurfaced.
And now I was indeed wretched beyond wretchedness of mere Humanity. And a brute beast – whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed – a brute beast to work out for me – for me a man, fashioned in the image of the High God – so much of insufferable woe! Alas! neither by day nor by night knew I the blessing of Rest anymore! During the former the creature left me no moment alone; and, in the latter, I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear, to find that hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its vast weight – an incarnate Night-Mare that I had no power to shake off – incumbent eternally upon my heart!

(21)
“Brute” holds negative connotations of cruel and savage, by combining it with “beast” the narrator’s hatred of the animal escalates. This phrase is then repeated in italics. Similarly, he continues to refer to the cat as “the thing”. The repetition of italics shows the dramatic increase in hatred from the beginning of the story. These negative connotations emphasize the characters growing insanity. As the narrator’s hatred of the animal begins to manifest further, so does his insanity. This influx of paranoia and hatred causes the narrator to develop insomnia: “Alas! neither by day nor by night knew I the blessing of Rest anymore!” (21). This lack of sleep escalates the narrator’s insanity, as seen through the increasing negative connotative language. As the narrator’s insanity continues to deteriorate, the reader’s interpretation of the events becomes increasingly warped. The more insane he becomes, the more unreliable he gets. This unreliability leads to a bias in the story, causing the reader to not understand all aspects of the plot with clarity.
The impact of the narrator’s insanity can be seen at the end of the short story after he has murdered his wife and the cat has disappeared.
The second and the third day passed, and still my tormentor came not. Once again I breathed as a freeman. The monster, in terror, had fled the premises forever! I should behold it no more! My happiness was supreme! The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little. Some few inquiries had been made, but these had been readily answered. Even a search had been instituted – but of course nothing was to be discovered. I looked upon my future felicity as secured. (23)
“My tormentor” and “The monster” hold negative connotations of fear and mental torture.

The cat has afflicted so much insanity that the narrator felt tormented by its presence, only through murder did he feel at peace: “My happiness was supreme! The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little.” This irrational act marks the peak of the narrator’s insanity. Initially, he only saw the animal as something to be pitied, as time passed he viewed it as a creature of cruel intentions. Eventually, he eradicated all animal characteristics, turning his cat from a pitiable animal to a “thing”. The narrator’s overwhelming insanity becomes glaringly clear at this point; his insanity has reached its highest point, overrunning him with such madness that he killed his wife without hesitation or regret. His information has become completely unreliable, causing the reader to question what is true or not, and directing many inferences drawn from the text towards the narrator’s

sanity.
The increasingly negative connotative language used in “The Black Cat” outlines the narrators downfall into insanity. This can be tracked through the many instances, most notably the first time he attacked his cat, after adopting a second cat, and after murdering his wife. From pity to torment the narrator’s language used to describe his cat conveys the unreliability of his portrayal and guides the reader to question the immediate information; to critically analyze the deeper levels of the narrator’s sanity.