The Black Cat Analysis

us, no matter how docile and humane our disposition might appear. In this story, the narrator portrays a man who is fond of animals, had a tender heart, and is happily married. Within several years of his marriage, his general temperament and character make a radical

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.

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 The Black Cat, the narrator admits that it was an “unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself – to offer violence to its own nature – to do wrong for the wrong’s sake only…” that made him carry out the merciless killing of his most favourite pet.

The protagonist faces an internal conflict of his sanity vs. his alcoholism. The anonymous narrator also is in external conflict with Pluto because the cat symbolizes the struggle the narrator consistently endures in his alcoholism. Initially the narrator was very fond and had an “intensity of gratification” for his cat Pluto, but this could be perceived as the pleasure that alcohol brings when someone has the idea of drinking being “fun”. However, as the narrators’ feelings towards Pluto grow more resentful, and angry that can be attributed to the intense decline of his personality once he starts to become more of an alcoholic. Based on the validity of this assumption, then the central idea directly links to Pluto’s symbolism because the narrator mistreating the cat represents how the narrator is also ill-treating himself with alcohol. Accordingly, the many terrifying deeds the narrator pursued upon Pluto illustrated the insanity that has been induced on the narrator due to the ill-effects of his alcoholism.

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe is a horror story of an insane man telling us of his crimes. The narrator was just a regular man with a drinking problem until one day when he came home and gouged out his cat’s eye. But his hostility only got worse, to the point where he hung the cat in the back yard. His actions only further prove that he wasn’t in his right mind when he committed these crimes.

In Poe’s short story “The Black Cat”, the narrator’s insanity is shown as violence being used towards his loved ones as a problem-solver of his frustration. Throughout the story, there are many times where he finds himself in aggravating situations. His craziness shines especially at these times, as he automatically uses assault to fix his problems. As a sane person might lose control at times and hit something, the narrator seems to always take out his frustration with cruel actions towards his wife and animals. For

Edgar was a child who was very well behaved and very fond of animals, he loved everything about them. When he married his wife Virginia at a very young age he was happy to know she loved animals as much as he did. Edgar had several animals but his favorite was his black cat Pluto. Pluto and Edgar got along very well, until Edgar became older he began to drink everyday and would lose his temper and become moody and even violent sometimes. His wife and pets noticed the change in how he was acting lately, but slowly the drinking got worse. After the drinking was terrible and was drunk all the time he became very violent, one evening edgar came home from the bar and felt that Pluto was avoiding him and he picked the cat up by the throat and cut

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe is about an unnamed narrator who claims to be sane, but ironically tells the story of his transformation from a compassionate individual into a murderer. The narrator lives with his caring wife and many pets, including a large black cat named Pluto. The friendship between the narrator and Pluto changes when the narrator heavily indulges in alcohol. His intemperance takes a toll on his psychological well being, as it sparks in him a spirit of perverseness: doing something that is wrong just for the sake of being wrong. This force, in the same way, allows the narrator to deal with his drunkenness through “logical” reasoning, which motivates him to murder Pluto.

Pluto watched from a monitor at the new subject in his trial. It was an elderly man near his 60s with a frail frame and thin white hair in a light patch around the back of his scalp. Through the camera, Pluto observed the man enticed by the planted shrub made for the sole purpose of luring humans who acted upon their emotion. As soon as the elderly man picked the shrub, the ground cracked open and took him into the depths where Pluto's kingdom resided. Seized into the underworld, Pluto asked for the man's name. The man frowned and shook his head, “I have no reason to tell you anything about me. I've learned by now that I should not waste my breath on people who do not know what value my breath is.” Pluto cocked his head to the side slightly,

Edgar Allen Poe is infamous for his works hat features violence, madness, death among other dark themes. His texts “The Black Cat” and “The Telltale Heart” are not different. Both of the narrators committed murder and justify their reasoning behind their madness and their heinous crimes. The former killed his wife in an attempt to kill the black cat and the latter killed the old man because of his evil eye. They both attempted to hide the bodies, but ultimately reveal their crimes due to their insanity. The readers perceive the narrators’ actions as an act of madness and violence. Deliberate cruelty is the intentional infliction of pain and suffering upon someone. Poe demonstrates the deliberate cruelty of the narrators instead of their madness. In this essay, I will point out the specific instances of deliberate cruelty in both texts. He reveals the narrators’ deliberate cruelty by showing their rationale despite illustrating their loving relationships with their victims. Poe depicts the cruelty through not only the selective details that illustrate the stable minds of the narrators, but also the actions that both protagonists exhibit in the texts. This is important because people normally characterize these actions as madness. This generalization of cruelty as madness contribute to the stigmization of mentally ill people. However, careful reading of both texts shows otherwise.

Soon following his chronic drinking, the narrator finds it within himself to offer his wife violence for no apparent reason. The narrator does the same with their pets, last of which is the cat which bites back at him – unleashing a demon, which proceeds to gouge out one of the cat’s eyes. He develops an unfathomable longing and evidently believes it is inherent in his nature. To the cat that he encounters later, a violent bitterness and hatred culminate for the creature. The resentment peaks as the cat continues to be good to him despite of his wretchedness and what he did to Pluto.

The narrator of this story is telling his story from jail,and he wants to tell the story the right way. He starts by describing what kind of child he was when he was younger. He was very kind, and nice and he loved animals. Later in life he gets married to a girl that also loves animals and has many things in common with him. When they move in together they have a house full of animals, and one being a pure black cat being among his wife's favorite. The big black cat’s name is Pluto. By looking at the plot of the story, one can see how this one black cat turned the narrator's world upside down.

He seized the cat and was bitten on the hand. In demonic vengeance, the narrator pulls a penknife from his pocket and cuts out one of the cat’s eyes. The next morning the narrator feels guilty for what he has done. He is unable to reverse the effects of the alcohol. The wounded cat flees in terror at the sight of the man.

In the beginning of the book the narrator and main character of the story was kind and mild. In the narrator’s past he has always loved animals since the beginning. He decides to get married to a woman he dearly loves at a young age and wants to make her experience the joys of having a pet or animal to play around and hang out with. Out of all the wild animals around the world and classical American pets, the narrator decides to pick this one cat and named the cat Pluto. Even though the character may love Pluto but he soon suffers from mood swings because of his use of alcohol. These mood swings tend to be very violent affecting the people around him as well such as his wife and his pet cat, Pluto.