Edgar Allen Poe Analytical Essay

Concerning “The Black Cat”, Poe vividly portrays individuality as a connecting theme to Romanticism because of the narrator’s treatment of each character of the story’s characters, his wife and the cat. In the story, the narrator kills his wife in a “more than demonical” rage, for no other reason than to express his rage at his wife’s interference between him and the cat (723). He acted alone, with no prompting from anyone other than himself. The cat as a character receives no different of treatment from the narrator’s wife: even the wife’s own intervention on the cat’s behalf does not save it from its eventual demise, rather the narrator “firmly resolved to put into death”(723). The only way the cat escapes death is through hinting at the narrator’s murder to the police through the house’s walls.

The events that unfolded in Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The black Cat,” are all due to one person, the narrator. It is because of his Mental state, being an alcoholic, and being abusive to his wife and pets that the fault lies heavily on the narrator. What this paper will entail is all three of the reasons why it is the narrator's fault for what happens in the story and it will come to a conclusion based off the findings in the story.

Sigmund Freud is highly renowned psychologists known for his most controversial theories in the history of psychology. He is also believed to be the father of modern psychiatry and psychology. His works are read widely and are criticized as well. He has left behind numerous theories regarding human mind and behavior out of which some are commonly accepted and some are widely debated. The question after that arises now is “Why did Freud’s theories get many criticisms?”

He found a way to escape. His method was writing. He found so much in common

    Edgar Allan Poe once said, “With me, poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.” When stressed, writing was his coping mechanism, and through observation, many grasp how much death encompassed Poe. Although not appreciated during his era, he revolutionized mystery with mesmerizing story plots that yield suspense, but also makes readers question his stability. Most importantly, unlike those famous during his lifetime who are now forgotten, Poe’s legacy will live on forever. Moreover, throughout life, Poe experienced catastrophe, and because of this, writing became his creative outlet.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat,” the protagonist of the story is the narrator, and throughout the story he commits multiple heinous crimes. In the opening of the story, Poe places a somber mood on the work by revealing that the narrator will die the next day. Along with this the narrator states that a series of events have “terrified -- have tortured -- have destroyed” him (1). The narrator has grown up having pets—he loves them. When he got married, his wife allowed him to own many animals, such as “birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat” (1).

“Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb” (Poe 32). This is the ending of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat.” This story is one of the many famous short stories Poe has written in his life time. However, this story, in particular, captivities the horror and frightening works of his display. Having his personal history and short story at hand, will help his audience to understand some of his guilty pleasures. In this Critical Analysis Essay, the composition of “The Black Cat” will be revealed by connecting the pieces of Edgar Allan Poe’s life together, exposing his point of view.

The greatest metaphor throughout this tale is the black cat. While the narrator’s wife has been known to refer to the dark-haired feline as a “witch in disguise”, the metaphor for Poe is that the cat is not only a superstitious monster but it is also a metaphor for being the narrator’s own personal demon (Poe 706). The recurring events with the black cats in the story portray that they are metaphors for the narrator’s own problems that haunt him. As the series of events continue throughout the story, the cat becomes a visual element in the scene for the narrator’s recurring violence and finally brings him to the point of his insanity.

Spiraling down a deep, dark, downward vortex of mystery, violence, and the psychological standing of the human mind, is where poe takes us in his short story, “ The Black Cat.” The ominous mood and chilling tension overwhelms its audience. What makes this such a captivating, compelling story? Edgar Allan Poe, a complex, yet mocking and flashy writer uses a series of literary elements that aid him while taking us through the journey of the trouble narrator in, “The Black Cat.” The ever evolving tone throughout the story plays an enormous role in making this such an amazing story.

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 my his wife and animals. As the story progresses he continues to find anger within himself to make him harm his family.

Edgar Allan Poe is regarded as one of the darkest writers in American history. His writing depicted imaginatively dark plots and overall context. He made several works that were part of this method of writing, but this paper will be solely based on his short story titled, The Black Cat. This paper will break down the story to give a more in-depth perception of both his method of writing and the plot of the story.

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.

Edgar Allan Poe is well-known for his captivating tales of the macabre through eloquence and wit. In many of his short stories, Poe was able to exploit his audience's fears through allegory and descriptive details of murder and madness. One of Poe's captivating, yet mad, narrators helms "The Black Cat," a tale of paranoia, alcoholism, and murder. There are several things that make the narrator an intriguing character including his psychological state, the imp of the perverse, and the effect that alcoholism has on him.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Black Cat”, the main character is the unknown narrator. The narrator seems perfectly normal at the beginning of the story, he is married with a home full of animals. Towards the middle of the story he turns into an unexpected character and makes the home life for everyone he lives with extremely miserable. The narrator is a blamable character. He blames the cat for all of his actions such as the violent scene that occurred whenever he came home drunk one night. Meanwhile, the cat did not a single thing to the narrator. The narrator portrays an insane quality. Towards the beginning of the story, the narrator contradicts himself by trying to convince himself that he is not crazy.

Poe’s malformed subconscious reflects the extreme tragedy he contended with in his early and adolescent life-- his mother and the rest of his family died when he was very young, leaving Poe in the care of his stepfather, John. Poe and John Allen, although they loved each other, shared in an intensely tumultuous relationship. Poe took to gambling when his stepfather refused to pay for his college education at the University of Virginia, and shortly thereafter acquired excessive debt. Consequently, Poe became one among the impoverished. Forced to burn his own furniture in order to keep warm in harsh winter months, Poe lost all faith in the goodness of humanity, and this is reflected in most, if not, all of his writings. The Black Cat centers around an alcoholic narrator whose gradually intensifying psychosis drives him to snuff out that which vexes him (in this case a cat) only because his psychosis prompted him to do so. The narrator has no control over the evil components of his