Internal Criticism In Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat

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The overlooked perks of having a cat: an essay “The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls,”- Edgar Allan Poe. The romantic author’s idea of human nature being corrupted by instinctive weakness is reflected in his short story, “The Black Cat”. Throughout the story, the narrator relates internal monologue and conflicting feelings towards his family’s two cats, with his inner demon eventually taking control and forcing him to kill his cats and wife. Poe uses the symbol of black cats to represent the conflicting inner turmoil of a person’s deepest desires and how people are willing to pin blame on anything but their own malevolence.
The relationship between the narrator and the narrator’s first cat, Pluto, is representative of human nature. He is the perfect picture of an average man during his time, which sets Poe’s scene well. The narrator has an ongoing obsession with animals, starting at a …show more content…

He first mentions alcohol when the narrator confesses that the disease that torments him is alcohol (2). At this point, it is clear that the cause of the narrator’s change in temper is because of the alcohol when, “[o]ne night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, [he] fancied that the cat avoided [his] presence. [he] seized him” (2). The thoughts of harm were alway in the narrator’s mind, but after intoxication, he “knew [him]self no longer” (2). Especially as the narrator’s mental state deteriorates, his interactions towards his wife and cat show the strain of suppressing his instincts. Including alcohol as a mental impairment in this story does not relate to the alcohol itself, but supplies a symbol of vulnerability in humans that can open up dark parts of a person’s soul. Poe suggests that alcohol plays a role in the narrator’s routine consistently throughout the story, and it leads to the rash decisions he later

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