The Black Cat Comparative Essay

Although being two different categories of texts, “The Black Cat” and “Self Reliance” have similarities and differences as well. Both texts share the common upbringing of the idea of learning from mistakes. In “The Black Cat”, the narrator realizes his killing of his cat was wrong. Recalling, “I experienced a sentiment half of horror half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty…”(Poe 5). Despite his murderous actions and recent corrupt behavior, the narrator still learned to recognize that what he performed was a mistake or wrong, and even sensed guilt. The narrator of “Self Reliance” also contributed to the topic of becoming aware of mistakes, but instead, aimed it at society instead of himself. He says, “we recognize our own rejected thoughts...and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another” (Emerson 4). To summarize his message, Emerson believes that people of society emphasize their mistakes, and by doing so, it teaches people to learn from them. Akin to what was previously mentioned, a difference between the two pieces is the subject of the Oversoul. “The Black Cat” does not mention this. In fact, the opposite is the case. The narrator is disconnected from the other characters in the text due to his nefarious actions, unlike the innocence portrayed by the cats and the wife. On the other hand, the Oversoul is talked about by Emerson when he states, the ‘deep force' through which we ‘share the life by which things exist'...this self

Both texts were written by Edgar Allan Poe. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is about a man that has some sort of lazy eye and the man that stays with him can’t stand to look at the eye because it drives him crazy. The man’s eye causes the other man to go insane and he ends up murdering the man. “The Black Cat” is about about a man who believes he is innocent but then eventually breaks down and is impelled by a nagging reminder of guilt.

In “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat”, Edgar Allan Poe makes use of unreliable narration

An unnamed narrator begins the story by claiming his is entirely sane, despite the narrative he is about to describe. He confesses a great love for cats and dogs, both of which, he says, respect the fidelity of friendship, unlike fellow men. The narrator marries at a young age and introduces his wife to the domestic joys of owning pets. Among birds, goldfish, a dog, rabbits, and a monkey, the narrator singles out a large and beautiful black cat, named Pluto, as his favorite. Michael Porter, an author for the website “GradeSaver”, wrote an article about The Black Cat and an analysis and overview about the story and what it means. Porter wrote a section on about the changes in the narrator when he said, “The narrator begins to suffer from violent mood swings, predominantly due to the influence of alcohol. He takes to mistreating not only the other animals but also his wife” (Porter, Web). During this uncontrollable rage, he spares only Pluto. As he turned more towards alcohol the beatings became more and more

“The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” (Benbenek). Another film adaptation influenced by the work of Edgar Allan Poe is Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key from 1972. It is based off Poe’s short story “The Black Cat;” only loosely, however, for there are a few changes in the details of the plot. The plot of the film includes the main character, Oliviero, who is an abusive and alcoholic writer who lives in an old mansion with his wife and their black cat named Satan. When Oliviero’s mistress is killed, his niece comes to stay with him and eventually to take his money, she and Oliviero’s wife plot to kill him and his “mysterious cat” (Poe). The original story is slightly different from the film because the main character is an alcoholic who owns a black cat, except he later

In the “Tell Tale Heart” we see the unnamed ambiguous narrator plotting, stalking, and killing the equally ambiguous character of the old man. This entire plot is carried out by an apparently mad narrator who claims sanity and his lack of hate toward the old man, yet carries out his murder before dismembering his body and hiding it under the floorboards. Poe brilliantly illustrates the mind of his narrator and forces his reader to believe his stated lack of hate for the old man. In the end, the reader is left with only one conclusion regarding the murder. Both the eye and the heart of the story are reflections of the narrator personified in the old man.

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.

Him and his wife had a cat named pluto many other animals but he was closest to the cat. The narrator and the cat were close, they had a bond. Then the narrator started coming home in the wrong mind, drunk! The narrator came home one night drunk and tried to give the cat love and play with him, then the cat clawed the guy and tried to bite him it made him mad so he took his pocket knife out of his pocket and stabbed the cats eye out. Soon the cat recovered and still the narrator was getting drunk. the narrator loved the cat alot, he noticed every time he was around the cat would run away it made his so angry!

Sometimes the darkest stories are written to reveal the reality of someone’s life. Edgar Allan Poe was just one of many writers who portrayed their life in their writing. In one of his many pieces called The Black Cat, he makes the narrator an alcoholic just like he was in real life. Poe endures a hard childhood with abuse, neglect, and lack of love. In the story he shows this by having the narrator abuse his wife and cat. He also doesn’t like her wife and neglects her much of the time. Poe is also showing how he was messed up from such a harsh childhood and portrays this by making the narrator insane and murdering his cat while being sober. In his marriage his wife became ill and died and in his story the narrator murders his wife. This could be a metaphorical murder because Poe was poor and couldn’t buy his wife the medicine she needed to get better.

We notice that the wife is not present during most of the story until the end, but low and behold the black cat has been mentioned in almost every line. One may ask, who is to blame for these crazy occurrences? The blame is on the black cat, who has superstitiously been accused of being a witch. The narrator states, “In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise.” You would not believe such an animal to be accused of such wrong deeds. However, when the house took to flames that animal was upon the only wall left standing. A gigantic cat with a noose about its neck, a haunting sight for the murderer. It was as if the cat wanted to thwart him from feeling unashamed for his actions. The black cat, venerated the man until that fateful day, coming back to get his revenge on the narrator. Another reason to accuse the black cat is because after the house fire another black cat finds its way back into the couple’s life. However, this particular cat only had one difference from his first cat, this cat had what looked like a large

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” is the story of a man who battles addiction. Poe uses a variety of symbolism to portray how the narrator’s life spirals out of control due to his inability to maintain his sobriety. The story’s narrator and main character gives us a glimpse into his childhood: he had a “tenderness of heart” and he was “especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets”. The animals and pets that the narrator speaks about are symbolic for different drugs. The propensity to addiction was introduced to him as a tender child, by his parents. Once a full blown addict, the narrator gets married to woman who is also an addict. The narrator states that his wife has a “disposition not uncongenial

“… nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.” (Poe 718) Edgar Allen Poe in The Black Cat speaks of his demonic thoughts and his murderous crimes. Poe did kill his wife intentionally, and there is evidence that his wicked demons of hatred made him do it, and because of that… Poe has no remorse for murdering the woman that he married. Poe states that he is diseased with alcohol that resulted in the individuals around him experiencing the effects of his ill temper. (Poe 719) The fury of demons from his terrible alcoholic habit possesses him, and the original soul of his body is known no more. (719)

Her husband is the source of her emotional despair. He leaves her drowning in a storm of indifference and lack of affection. When she goes back to the room she begins to look at herself in the mirror studying her profile feeling unwomanly with short hair. She feels this causes the lack of physical and emotional attention from her husband. When she tells him of all the things she desires, he merely tells her to "shut up." He really doesn’t care about her concerns. She doesn’t defend herself from her husband’s verbal abuse but rather begins to pout like a little girl saying, "I want a cat, I want a cat now. If I cant have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat."(pg57) Suggesting that her husband will not allow her to have long hair or any fun. She wants this cat so bad, in order to hold it, pet it, and love it, symbolizing what she wants physically, to be held and touched, and emotionally, to be loved and cared for.

When reading a short story many people take the details given to be the unconditional truth. This is probably why so many of these people are confused or repulsed by a story like “The Black Cat.” Throughout the story, the narrator makes numerous contradictions. These contradictions, combined with his actions make me doubt the legitimacy and truth of what he says.

To begin with, the narrator has changed drastically throughout the story “through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance (alcohol).” Alcohol plays a huge role in the narrator's life because it changes him and how he acts towards others. It made the narrator confuse the difference between reason and impulse. People usually tend to think first when committing an action or saying something. They can tell between right and wrong and this is the very thing the narrator is missing. He stopped thinking and stopped being logical. Instead, he does everything he feels without taking the time to think and soon enough, that becomes his nature. The narrator “grew by the day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feeling of others” (1), he began to neglect and ill-use his pets. Not to mention the way he has started to treat his wife. The effect the narrator undergoes is indicated when he came home one day, intoxicated and thought that Pluto was avoiding him, which he then grasps the cat by its throat with a pen knife, and cut one of his eyes. This act of perversity is the starter of several other acts the narrator commits.