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How Is Pluto Unreliable

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The narrator did at the beginning of the story suggested that he was not reliable, because his words were somehow self-contradictory, and he seemed to be mentally disturbed, if not tortured. He described his experience as "the most wild” and "the most homely", so he "neither expect nor solicit belief", for his "very senses reject their own evidence”, but he was pretty sure he was not mad and that he did not dream. The two adjectives he used to describe his experience are contradictory, thus putting readers at sea. Then he explained that he did not expect readers to believe his story because he himself did not believe it either. Yet he denied the possibility that his narration was unreliable by claiming that he was neither mad nor dreaming. …show more content…

For example, when he said that his wife was obsessed with an ancient tale that black cats were actually witches in disguise. He interrupted his account with an explanation for himself that he "mentions the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered." And he once again stopped the narration of how he dug out the eye of Pluto with his comment: "I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity." He was in earnest hope to obtain forgiveness and "unburden his soul." Besides, he, at first, said that he soon began to dislike the second cat he brought home after Pluto's death but he "know not how or why it was." But soon he admitted that it was because of "a certain sense of shame, and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty", and that is what prevented him from maltreating him. However, later words slipped out of his mouth that he did abuse the second cat "chiefly --let me confess it at once --by absolute dread of the beast." In his first two claims he purposefully hid his real feeling because he wanted to alleviate his guilt. He did not hurt the poor cat mainly because of his …show more content…

Although the narrator did not clearly say it, still we can find allusions in his account. When the narrator recalled his childhood, he expressed his sincere affection with animals, which are his "principle sources of pleasure." He compared "paltry friendship" and the "gossamer fidelity of mere men", which indicating that he must have gone through certain setbacks while socializing with other people. "Fidelity" is a word we often use to describe the faithfulness to one's spouse. The expression itself can raise our doubt about the fidelity of his wife, which might be the exact reason why he suddenly became a brutal beast. If we bear this doubt in mind and read through the passage in hope to find more evidence, the result can be startling. When the narrator woke up by the cry of fire and found that the entire house was blazing, he mentioned one single picture in his mind--"the curtain of his bedroom in flames." And the wall on which appeared the inauspicious and frightening black cat was "against the head of my bed." The narrator kept mentioning the ruins in his bedroom. Both the "curtain in flames" and the black cat on his wall can be symbols of the infidelity of his wife. If all the allusions mentioned before are too vague and fussy, the following sentence is more direct. "I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear, to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its vast weight --an incarnate Nightmare that I

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