Literary Confession In The Black Cat

Poe’s “The Black Cat” is traditionally considered as a horror tale, however, in this essay, I will prove that it is not a horror tale, but an optimism tale. First, “The Black Cat” is about an individual’s confession. Actually, there are four types of confession: religious confession, legal cofession, confession of faith and literary confession. “The Black Cat” is a literary confession, which means that the narrator in the tale speaks or confesses to all human, and he wants to restore a moral order after he has caused a moral disorder through his narration. The reason why I said it is a literary confession is that, from the first paragragh, the narrator mentions that he wants to “unburthen” his soul through speaking out “a series of mere household events”. This means that the narrator thinks he can avoid the god’s punishment after his death, by telling all human the reason of his death. An obvious feature of literary confession is that it is for all human, and it will last forever. In the meanwhile, literary confession is a recognition of the narrator’s humanity. Second, There is a tension between fabula and plot in “The Black Cat”. Fabula means that the

Why I say it is a plot is that confession is made after the events, because people want to make a confession only after they have caused a moral disorder, and they want to restore a moral order. For instance, in “The Black Cat”, the narrator admits his crime and makes a coffesion after he got the punishment,that he was found that he killed his wife and walled her into the wall. There is a causal relationship between these events. If the narrator does not commit crime, he will not get his punishment, and if he does not get his punishment, he will not make confession. Thus, the confession is a plot, in which the narrated events follow a moral logic: the evil is admitted, punished, and rejected, while the good is recognized, desired, and