Alcoholism In Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Black Cat'

To conclude this argument it is very clear that the actions that took place in, “The black cat,” are the narrators fault. It is on account of him being an alcoholic, being in a poor mental state, and being abusive to his wife and pets that the fault lies in the

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

Have you ever had someone that has done that to you like Rat did to Cat. One story we read was “Cat and Rat: Legend of the Chinese Zodiac” about how Rat cheated his friend Cat. The other we read was “How Cats and Mice Became Enemies” about how the cat got made at his friend mouse for eating their pumpkin boat. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the story Cat and Rat Legend of the Zodiac and How Cat and Rat Became Enemies.

Alcohol can increase or bring out the anger that a person has, it can influence them to do things that they would not do in a everyday scenario and cause them to lash out instead of dealing with the situation rationally. At alchoholism.about.com they say "Alcohol intoxication brings out people's natural tendencies in the expression of anger" saying that maybe for our narrator even though he was a kind hearted person he may have had anger that he let out while drinking, connecting him symptoms of drug abuse. When he begins to drink in the story he starts to take out some of his anger on his pets, but never Pluto, his cat. As his drug abuse with alcohol worsens he completely stops caring and feeling remorse, tearing out the eye of his best friend Pluto. His anger consumes him as he consumes more alcohol and it changes him into a violent person.

In the opening paragraph of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” he assures the reader first and foremost that he is a sane man insisting that he is not mad, however this is not something that a so called “sane” man should have to emphasis. He instead however gives leeway into the madness that he gets driven into through his own external and internal demons surrounding him. We know that from a young age the narrator has a great deal of passion for animals spending most of his childhood years caring for them and them alone. This tells us that as a child our narrator didn't have much social companionship from other human beings but instead sought refuge in his animal friends. The time in our lives when we are our most innocent is when

Thus, this main character’s diminutive flaw, which pertains to his love for alcohol, leads to his corrupted mind. One day when the narrator returned home intoxicated, he understood his cat, Pluto, who he once adored, was avoiding his presence. For the reason that this made the main character irritated, he “took from [his] waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast [Pluto] by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” The main character’s alcohol problem caused him to believe his evil action, in regards to taking the cat’s eyes out, was plausible. The former joyful, generous man sprouts into an evil and a criminal, who murders Pluto, his

The narrator may have been a kind hearted person, but while drinking his anger came

The madness has only just begun. Yet, sorry to say, Pluto does not remain so fortunate to keep off the misuse. The narrator first addresses his use of alcohol when describing his initial act against Pluto. He states that he was drunk when he “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 took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” (Norton, pg. 696) He blinded his cat! He had taken the beings that he loved and attacked them, his wife and pets. In modern times, we would have locked him up in a padded cubicle. He blamed his actions on his irritation. He claimed the cat caused this irritation, but how? The cat committed no act deserving of such cruelty, nor did his wife. The evidence indicates to his intoxication. He stated that once he understood what he had done, he drank his guilt in wine. It was all so predictable. He acted out

The facts of the story alone can take the reader through a range of emotion from anger and disappointment to disgust. Anger at the violence of the attacker and even more anger, disappointment and disgust at the behavior of Kitty’s neighbors. I find it hard to believe that

Have you ever had a friend betray you?In the story,”Cat and Rat”(will be referred to as,’’Story 1) and “Cat and Mouse”(Story 2) the same thing happened.In Story 1 the cat and rat were in a race and rat sabotaged the cat.In Story 2 the rat just had been hungry,although he could have just waited.This essay will talk about the similarities and differences between the two stories.

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe is a timeless classic, illustrating many different elements of horror. In this story, emotions run high, there are some peculiar/sketchy settings, and grotesque descriptions. The list truly goes on and on, but the focus is primarily on these elements. Examining these elements and understanding them really brings a new understanding to the piece.

Although Edgar Allen Poe is widely considered a romantic writer, some of his short stories can be categorized as more real, than romantic. Realism is a genre of writing that focuses primarily on telling stories of real life, ordinary events, whereas romanticism focuses on emotionally driven, often times imaginative stories. Knowing that information, we can see that “The Black Cat” contains a mixture of both realist and romantic elements. Overall “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe should catagorized as a realist piece of literature because the events that take place in “The Black Cat” are events that one might see on the news or read in the newspaper. The story’s plot is driven by human misbehavior or vices, instead of supernatural elements that cause the man to commit heinous acts of violence and lastly the man accepts the crimes he has committed and comes to the understanding that he only has himself to blame for his wrongdoings and he must face the consequences of his actions.

Over 3.2 billion people experience the affects of alcohol and the negative results it has on their life. This is the case in Edgar Allen Poe story, “The Black Cat”. The Narrator in the story becomes mentally insane because of an alcohol addiction. The Narrator demonstrates how alcohol can destroy relationships with, animals, people and how he truly is mentally insane because of this.

Alcohol can prevent people from thinking the way they normally would. This may cause them to perform unusual, wrong, and even unlawful actions, such as driving while intoxicated, or assaulting someone. Alcohol is a big part in crime, as “alcohol use is involved in one-half of all murders, accidental deaths, and suicides.” The United States Department of Justice found that “Alcohol abuse was a factor in 40 percent of violent crimes committed in the United States” (Richards 5). Likewise, in “The Black Cat,” the narrator is no stranger to violence. One day, while going to the cellar with his wife, he man was finally pushed over the limit by his second black cat. The cat followed him up to the cellar, in which “nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness.” He then took an axe and “aimed a blow at the animal, which, of course, would have proved instantly fatal.” However, he was stopped by “the hand of my wife.”Aggravated by this, he went into “a rage more than demonical.” He then withdrew his arm from her grasp and “buried the axe in her brain” (Poe 6). The man was aggravated and irritated, one of the side effects of alcohol. His anger completely clouded his mind, as well as his ability to reason. This sent him into a rage,in which he killed his wife. The man was corrupted by alcohol, which made him commit a murder. He does not even feel a pang of guilt; he just goes about concealing the

In the short story, The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe conveys many different types of the horror genre. During the early 1800s, he wrote many short stories and poems that belonged to the horror genre. His famous works are, “The Raven”, “The Tell Tale Heart”, and “The Pendulum”. Over 400 years later, all of his stories are still recognized today and read by many, making him one of the best writers of all time. In the story “The Black Cat”, it starts with a man explaining the last few horrific days of his life. The man then goes on with his early life and his tendency to nurture and love animals. He becomes an alcoholic, and learns that he is violent and disturbed by his wife and animals. As the story progresses, he continues to find anger within himself to make him harm his family.