In Edger Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat,” the author produces one of the most influential pieces of the horror genre of his time, specifically due to the depth of psychological horror. He is able to do this by combining elements of horror from his own imagination, with influences of his own life, specifically the abuse of alcohol and possible superstitions, to create several masterpieces that will go on to influence the genre of horror long after his own death. The main character is first introduced to the readers as being a man who is insane, a man who is to be sentenced to death the following day, and a man that wants to confess actions that took place leading up to that very day. He goes on to tell the reader: “These events have terrified - have tortured - have destroyed me. But I will not attempt to explain them. To me, they have presented nothing but horror.” The main character as he put it, has been terrified, tortured, and destroyed by what has happened, but before he tells us what events transpired, he tells us of his childhood. “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition.” This textual evidence …show more content…
From the beginning when we are introduced to the main character, he is literally being imprisoned. When the story unfolds, the setting takes place in the home of his wife and his, which isn’t necessarily as much of a confining factor for himself, but for his wife and their pets. When the main character murders his cat Pluto, and the burning down of his house occurs, he returns to find a crowd, surrounding the wall in his bedroom where his headboard once was, and on the wall, “upon the white surface, the figure of the gigantic cat. There was a rope about the animal’s neck.” This specific detail supports a figurative form of confinement for the main character, of superstitious fear. Fear being a major factor in the genre of
“The Black Cat” is a short story about a man is dealing with alcohol problems, which cause him to lose his temper more frequently. One of the first cases of the man’s lashing out happens towards the beginning of the story. The man returns home, very intoxicated, and proceeds to cut one of the cat’s eyeballs out. Poe states “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” The use of deep description by Poe in this instance allows the reader to fully imagine the actions done by the man to the cat. He gives many small details like “grasped the poor beast by the throat,” to really readers to see what he wants them to. Additionally, as the story moves forward, the man is not done with the cat. He then proceeds to murder the cat he has already cut an eye out of. Poe explains “One morning, in cold blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree.” Poe paints a striking picture for the reader to see, and to feel the full impact of the action taken in the story.
Edgar Allan Poe’s life had a lot to do with his madness in his writings. This is present in Poe’s short story “The Black Cat”(1843). “On the night of the day on which this most cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed...
Fear is the emotional state that someone goes into when they feel threatened or endangered. The fact that we do not know everything makes us think that everything we do not know is feared. There are many stories that include the fear of the unknown. Each poem, story, and drama include some type of fear. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, “Hills Like White Elephants”, and “Poof” there is an extensive amount of fear for the unknown. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ernest Hemingway, and Lynn Nottage all used the fear to their advantage while writing and making an entertainment for the readers.
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.
Gargano, James W. “’The Black Cat’: Perverseness Reconsidered.” Twentieth Century Interpretations of Poe’s Tales. Ed. William L. Howarth. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1971. 87-94. Print.
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark theme poems and short stories. When one does read one of Poe 's works the reader gets a glimpse of Poe 's reality. His uses of metaphors and dark themes have made him very popular. He writing style has Gothic themes as well as suspense and horror themes as well. His use of very dark metaphors cast a dark and gloomy presence that shows the reader the mind and world of the narrator telling the story. Edgar Allen Poe 's use of dark themes in “Black Cat” helped him convey the very dark nature of his works in which helped him shape the reality of the stories.
The Gothic dimensions of Poe’s fictional world offered him a way to explore the human mind in extreme situations, and so arriving at an essential truth. The Gothic theme of the importance of the intuitive and emotional and the rejection of the rational and intellectual is prevalent throughout The Raven, The Black Cat, and The Tell-Tale Heart. This is coupled with the convention of transgressive, encroaching insanity, ubiquitous in Gothic literature. In The Tell-Tale Heart, a kind of psychological doubling is achieved by the narrator- an identification with the old man at the time of disturbing him in the middle of the night, and a psychopathic detachment, evidenced by the feeling of triumph and elation that precedes the murder in the extract “..so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror”. Hysteria is pertinent in Gothic texts, an...
A common theme that is seen throughout many of Edgar Allan Poe’s text, is madness. Madness that will make the whole world turn upside down and around again. Madness that takes over somebody’s life. Madness and eye imagery is present in both “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Tale Heart” by Poe where madness is at first a fairy tale but then ends with a crash back to reality.Both stories share components of murder and insanity, and are very similar, not at first glance but if looked at more closely.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. “The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural world.” (Womack). Poe uses many of the American Gothic characteristics such as emotional intensity, superstition, extremes in violence, the focus on a certain object and foreshadowing lead the reader through a series of events that are horrifying and grotesque. “The Black Cat is one of the most powerful of Poe’s stories, and the horror stops short of the wavering line of disgust” (Quinn).
This depicts how characters in American literature place feelings over reasoning, leading to morally complicated situations. Similarly, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” also explores prioritizing one’s feelings over reasoning. In this unsettling story, the narrator descends into madness and violence. Poe is known for his eerie and compelling stories, which explore the dark sides of human nature, showcasing how uncontrolled emotions can lead to horrifying
The narcissism of the narrator contributes to the overall darkness of the story and is largely conclusive to the dark and the underlying malevolence of Poe’s own conscience. The cat in “The...
When reading The Black Cat, by Edgar Allan Poe, almost immediately you can sense the dark and shadowy nature of the work. Filled with mystery, death and the possibility of the supernatural, this short story is a work of Gothic Literature.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Black Cat,” is a marvelous depiction of how alcohol can be destructive to people’s lives. In the story, the narrator commits multiple heinous crimes all after the consumption of alcohol. From the crimes he have committed, we can say that alcoholism has caused the narrator to lose parts of his sanity. Furthermore, it has also resulted in his enjoyment in being cruel and evil, in other words, known as “diabolical evil.” After psychoanalysing the story, it is believed that there are many reasons why the narrator might behave like that.
No matter which critical interpretation is used, it is evident that Poe's "The Black Cat" is a unique story that relies on key aspects, such as graphic violence and sensational imagery, to heighten the reader's perception toward the limits and depths of the human mind.
The Black Cat, a story written by famous horror author, Edgar Allen Poe exhibits all five elements of horror genre; fear, surprise, suspense, mystery, and spoilers. Edgar Allen Poe wrote stories to play on the fears of readers. Poe grew up in the 1800’s. As a child, he faced many fears himself as he grew up poor and watched his family die from disease.