The Black Cat Edgar Allan Poe Analysis

	In Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Black Cat," symbolism is used to show the narrator’s capacity for violence, madness, and guilt. "The Black Cat," written by Edgar Allan Poe serves as a reminder for all of us. The Capacity for violence and horror lies within each of

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

Verbal irony, defined as the use of vocal language to express a feeling which is totally different from what is expected, can be easily deducted from the plot. To begin with, the enthralling tale begins with the anonymous narrator telling his readers that he is about to recount a “series of mere household events”. As it turns out in the story, the events cannot be simply described as mere when the author clearly knows there is murder involved. When considering the horrible conclusion, the very opening of the story establishes an ironic tone that continues until the end of the tale. Probably, the ironic and casual way the narrator contemplates his story as mere is meant to inform the reader that the facts of the story he is narrating may soon turn out to be something different from what is first presented.

In this exhilarating yet suspenseful movie by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Black Cat” will leave you in suspense after every scene. As you begin the movie, you are greeted by a narrator who tells you that he is going to die tomorrow. He then continues by telling you about his life as a baby and how he was a very well-natured child. The narrator grows up to marry a woman who shares the same love for animals as he does. They have many pets but the most important one is their black cat named Pluto. The bond between the man and the cat grew for several years until he picked up a serious drinking problem. The narrator began to have a violent streak of swearing at his wife and abusing her and the animals, but he never abused the cat until one night. That

Have you ever thought about why people choose to make the choices they make? There is controversy over if people are able to make their own choices. Almost all of the time you have full control over your decisions. You have the ability to follow the rules if you want to and know that there could be a good or bad consequence to what you do. An individual has the power to choose their response in any situation.

Throughout all the short stories and poems wrote by Edgar Allan Poe, some connections can be made on the content. The Black Cat, and The Raven, are two narratives wrote by Poe, that unveil the themes and symbols he often uses in his work. Poe is on the mysterious side, but he is also taking the life he is given, and making his narratives raw and realist by some degree. Poe uses techniques that left him express his imagination through writing. There are many different ideas and questions rising from all his work. The Black Cat and The Raven, are two narratives that use similar themes and symbols that allow readers to receive a small connection of the madness inside of the narrators.

“The black cat” is famous as a horror story. Horror stories are normally considered as devil and perverseness. However, Poe’s “the Black Cat” talks about humanity. Optimism is found in the tale through literary confession, the tension of fabula and plot, normality and madness, five evils, and zero description of murder.

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.

In the short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe the reader is led onto a journey in which they are told the gruesome actions of a disturbed narrator. This subjective narrators' actions are spurred by a heavy alcohol addiction and deteriorating mental state. The narrator tells the reader of his deeds,which ultimately led to his demise, starting with the killing of Pluto. Pluto was the household cat of the narrator and his wife. He was very much cared and adored for but one night after returning home “much intoxicated” the narrator carved one of the poor beasts eyes after he upset him. After that event a disagreeable mood leeches onto the narrator and he decides to hang the pet using a noose and attaches it onto the limb of a tree . A

In the short story The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe uses diction to portray the overarching mood of fear. When the narrator starts to notice that the white spot on his new cat is changing, he gasps that the spot “was now, I say, the image of a hideous—of a ghastly thing—of the GALLOWS!— oh, mournful and terrible engine of Horror and of Crime—of Agony and of Death!” (10). Various words Poe used, such as “ghastly”, “mournful”, and “agony”, force the reader to notice the narrator’s woe and pain. Also, he uses the phrasing to emphasize several words to make them linger in the mind of the reader as they move on. These accentuated words depict the thought process of the narrator and even further push the underlying fear, as the reader feels surrounded

Although now seen as the father of the modern horror story, Edgar Allan Poe was previously viewed as a drunken failure. Within Poe’s writings much of his own life riddled with guilt, anxiety, alcohol, depression and death shines through resulting in works that appear unrelated yet once dissected prove similar. This is true for Poe’s works “The Raven” and “The Black Cat”. Poe’s examples of gothic fiction share the use of the color black and a rapid digression of the narrator 's sanity while seemingly unveiling Poe’s internal pain. Despite these similarities, Poe’s works also differ immensely. “The Black Cat” focuses around death while “The Raven” is fixed around discovering the reasoning for a bird 's arrival. Moreover, gothic themes seen within “The Raven” do not necessarily remain constant when compared to “The Black Cat”.

When Edgar Allan Poe wrote “The Black Cat” in 1843, the word “paranoia” was not in existence. The mental illness of paranoia was not given its name until the twentieth century. What the narrator is suffering from would be called paranoia today. The definition of paranoia is psychosis marked by delusions and irrational decisions. This definition could best be described in the nineteenth century as being superstitious and believing that supernatural powers are affecting our decisions. Superstition and being taken over by the supernatural is a recurring metaphor for paranoia in Poe’s story.

Irony begins within the narrator’s introduction to his confession by telling the reader that he will tell his story

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story about a unnamed man who goes through a major personality change. In the begin of the story he is described as a animal lover normal human being. The narrator gets married and introduce his wife to the joys of owning domestic animals. The narrator owns a variety of animals but signals out a black cat named Pluto as his favorite. The man begins to experience some major mood swings due to the influence of alcohol.

Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most influential and important writers of the nineteenth century. He was the first writer to try to make a living only writing. One of Poe’s most popular short stories, “The Black Cat”, is considered horror fiction or gothic fiction which Poe is known for in his books and short stories because it was a popular genre during his days. In Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat”, Poe uses a horror fiction genre, a mentally deranged and evil narrator/character, and symbolism of death to make a thrilling story with tons of suspense, drama, and gruesome detail.