The Role First Person Narration in Edgar Allen Poe's Poem The Black Cat

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Analysis of the Role First Person Narration Plays in Edgar Allen Poe's Poem The Black Cat

the point of view is an important aspect of telling the story. first person narration helps the reader to understand and follow the story from the narrators point of view. in this case it helps the reader to realise how insane the narrator is. even thought 1st person narration is not the best form of narration, as everything we read is the way the narrator looks at things, but it is the only way a reader can actually feel and experience what the narrator is expirencing. it helps the reader to get a good feel of the emotions, his state of mind and his madness.so i feel that in "the black cat" first person narration plays an important part in enhancing the theme of madness.

firstly, we can say that he had a good childhood. he loved his pets. but slowly as he grew old, may be because of some unfortunate events of failures, he started getting a feeling of emptiness in him and so he turned towards alcohol to fill this emptiness or to forget about all the bad things. the narrator also calls it a devil's act(feind intemperance). it was this alcohol that made him abuse his pets and slowly his wife.but when his own cat, who use to once love him, ignored him and scratched him in self defence he lost his mind. "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". by saying this he is discribing how he wasnt thinking properly. he had lost his rational thinking.he's lost himself(soul take its flight from his body)and no longer is in control of himself. and the alcohol that was running through him body was taking control of his body. this imagery explains perfectly what was going throught his mind at that moment. the readers can actually feel the insanity going on his mind. this is not something that a third person would have been able to discribe or experience and thus even the readers wouldnt have been able to understand his insane state of mind. so the 1st person narration plays an important role in explaning this plot of the story.

secondly, "the spirit of perverseness" as described by the narrator is basically an acute explaination of whats was going on in his head.

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