Poe v.s Faulkner- Analysis of Grotesque Literature “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner are both examples grotesque stories. Grotesque is a subgenre of literature that involves disturbing elements like horror, but also likes to portray sympathy with the characters. However, “The Black Cat” is more grotesque. Firstly, both stories portray love as a central theme; secondly, both portray empathy as a central theme. However, ultimately, the depictions of revenge in “The Black Cat” are more grotesque than in “A Rose for Emily”. Firstly, both stories have love as a central theme. Both of them show how love can be twisted into something horrific. In “The Black Cat,” the narrator says, “One morning, in cold …show more content…
In “The Black Cat” the new cat gets his revenge: “...a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their agony and of the demons that exult in damnation” (Poe 14) This story portrays a cat getting revenge on its owner for maltreating it and his previous pets, as the story had implied before that it had a connection to Pluto. This is both revenge and vengeance- the cat seems to be doing this for itself and for the other pets. Conversely, in “A Rose for Emily” revenge is portrayed less like an act of vengeance and more an act of greed :“The man himself lay in the bed. For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him” (Faulkner 7) The story implies that Miss Emily killed Homer. It was an act of revenge for not wanting to marry her. But this revenge was so she could have him forever, and was more about what she was not given rather than what was taken from her. Therefore, both stories have revenge as a theme, but portray them very
Most Dangerous game argument paragraph Sanger Rainsford did have a right to kill General Zaroff. First off Zaroff said in the story when he was explaining the game to Rainsford that, “I am to follow, armed only with pistol of the smallest caliber and range” ( Connell 5). This is not fair to Rainsford because a gun is more easy to kill than a knife. This would make an acceptable example of a good reason to kill Zaroff because Zaroff did not play the game fair. He should have given Rainsford a gun as well.
This renders the tone more one of reminiscence and, if Faulkner's narrator is not as grandiloquent as Poe's, he nonetheless paints vivid pictures, as in his description of Emily later in life: “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in water, and of that pallid hue” (Faulkner 3). What may be most interesting in the differences of narrator tone, however, is how each underscores the thrust of the story. Poe's extreme voice works to build up to a disturbing conclusion of murder; the exaggeration of Montresor's tone conforms to the trajectory of the story. With Faulkner, understatement is the key. His story ends as dramatically, if not more so, than Poe's, and the effect of the revealed necrophilia is amplified by how moderately the narrator conveys the tale.
In "The Scarlet Letter," the operations of repression definitely effect the actions of both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. They have things that they attempt to hide in order to make themselves feel better or to make others have an altered view of them. Freud states that the main reason we have problems in our lives are because of the "three areas of the mind.." He is referring to our egos, which help effect our decisions whether they are rational or irrational. These two characters push some of their unknown sinful thoughts, feelings, and actions into the back of their mind to try and maintain a different lifestyle.
In “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado” poe uses common writing ideas and themes to portray his dark and mysterious short stories and poems to his advantage of writing to make you want to read more. With two completely differently plotted stories somehow come together at the end for similar outcome and final thoughts.
Edgar Allan Poe is the most morbid of all American authors. Poe made his impact in Gothic fiction, especially for the tales of the macabre of which he is so renowned for. “How can so strange & so fine a genius & so sad a life, be exprest [sic] & comprest in on line — would it not be best to say of Poe in a reverential spirit simply Requiescat in Pace [?]” — (Alfred Lord Tennyson’s reply to the Poe Memorial committee, February 18, 1876). Poe’s own life story sheds light on the darkness of his writings.
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
In William Faulkner's short story entitled "A Rose For Emily", Emily Grierson kills her lover Homer Barron after being in love with him for about a year. She then sleeps next to the body in the upstairs bedroom of her home, loving it as if Homer were still alive. She then closes up the upstairs, never seeing the body again. There are three different motives that can be looked at as to why Emily killed Homer. She wanted to exercise power, she couldn't accept that Homer was a homosexual, and she didn't want another man to be taken away from her.
Having moved into a new house, the narrator happens across a black cat, which then follows him home. Nerves rattled, the narrator does his best to avoid the cat. When that fails he tries to kill it, accidentally killing his wife in the process. After sealing his wife's body into the basement wall, he is interviewed by the police. Not unlike in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator of “The Black Cat” cracks under the pressure of his guilt and gives himself up. Symbolism and suspense make “The Black Cat” worth reading.
This is evidently on the grounds that the character of Homer Barron is a Yankee and Emily slaughters him. Nonetheless, it is hard to contend that Emily's inspiration in dating Homer is to slaughter him on the grounds that he is a Northerner. The most evident clarification for her eagerness to date a man outside of her social rank would be that she is essentially a forlorn lady. A more subtle, however in any case sensible, clarification for her association with Homer would be that is her method for opposing her dead father. Amid his lifetime, her dad kept her from having an "adequate" suitor. In this way, she revolts by connecting with a man her dad would have considered an outsider: a Yankee day-worker. There is truly little to propose that the story is a moral story of the Civil War other than the way that a Yankee is executed by a Southerner. Faulkner himself, in his address on the story at the University of Virginia, denies such an elucidation. He said that he accepted that an essayist is ". Excessively caught up with taking a stab at, making it impossible to make fragile living creature and-blood individuals that will stand up and cast a shadow to have sufficient energy to be conscious of all the imagery that he may put into what he does or what individuals may read into
Both stories start off by briefing the listener on the elaborate scheme of events to come while introducing important character flaws. The narrator of The Black Cat shows evident signs of being mad through his actions and alcoholism. Essentially, the narrator cuts out his cat's eye, hangs the cat, possibly burns down his house, and kills his wife. Throughout these events alcohol complicates the plot line and hinders the narrator's ability to accurately tell the story. The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart also uses his actions and personal flaws to convey his unreliability as a storyteller. The story begins with the narrator posing the question of his sanity and disproving the accusation with his evidence being his calm and meticulous demeanor. He continues on to explain that he would sneak into his landlord's apartment at
In “The Tell-Tale heart” and “The Black Cat” there are many similarities from the murder and the motive of the killer. The man in “The Black Cat” is irritated and cannot stand to look at the cat or animals, he feels compelled to harm them much like the man in “The Tell Tale Heart” feels towards the man's grey eye. These things is what the murderers claim drove them to commit the crime. Neither of the cat or old man had hurt the perpetrators in anyway, in fact both the men in “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Tale Heart” cared for the very things they had killed. “There was no reason for what I did. I did not hate the old man; I even loved him. He had never hurt me.” - “The Tell-Tale Heart” and in the alcohol crazed killer in “The Black Cat” says
Edgar Allan Poe, the acclaimed poet, has created a multitude of short stories, one being “The Black Cat”.The short story depicts an alcoholic on his slow descent into insanity; this relates heavily to the author’s own life, being an extreme alcoholic himself. The narrator of “The Black Cat” is not only driven mad by alcohol, but also by a black cat, as you might guess from the title of the story. At the beginning of “The Black Cat”, you can tell the narrator’s alcohol addiction is taking its toll when he starts abusing his wife and pets. His actions slowly led up to him killing his cat, Pluto, and then killing his own wife because tried to defend their second cat from him. His meticulous writing style, diction, syntax, and imagery in his short stories are used to portray his emotions.
There is one known very influential writing style called Gothic Literature. It is not only considered to involve the horror or gothic element but is combined with romance, superstition, women in distress, omens, portents, vision and supernatural events to name a few (Beesly). The history and beginning of this era is not well known. From a few writers came this writing style that has impacted the world. A famous artists known for this type of writing is a man named Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote many short stories and poems that include horror, gothic, and romance just mentioned.
In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” the story tells how the narrator falls into alcoholism and turns into a violent, mad person. His change in personality causes him to kill his first cat. While in his fit of killing the second cat, his wife tries to defend the cat, then her husband accidently kills her. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman clarifies how the narrator has a wild imagination, but for treatment of depression, her husband keeps her confined to her bedroom (Gilman 88). With him taking away any way for her to use her imagination, it causes her to become extensive and turn it into craziness (Gilman 96). Both stories show significant similarities of the main characters suffering and how it affected their regular lives, but there’s a contrast between the two stories also.
Poe gives many gruesome and frightening details that make “The Black Cat” a horror fiction short story. Horror fiction is a genre of fiction designed to startle, frighten, or disgust the reader by inducing feelings of horror. Poe inducing feelings of horror through things that take place in the story such as the stabbing of Pluto, the first cat. When Poe wrote, “I took from my waistcoat pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of the eyes from the socket!” (Poe 436), he gives the reader a startled and disgusting feeling due to the gruesome depth of the sentence. Poe “darkens” the story even more with the hanging of Pluto and his wife’s murder. Poe writes about his wife’s murder and he gives evil details on the ideas of burying her in his