preview

The Black Cat Symbolism

Good Essays

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the audience gets an insight into the author’s uniquely pessimistic view on life. For example, in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe describes the madness and grief of a man following through his plan to execute a beloved old man, whom he befriended. The main character’s methodical procedure for conducting his murderous plot creates an atmosphere that augments anxiousness. Poe’s use of symbolism, melancholic themes, and motifs is meant to bring forth senses of distress or despair in some cases, as well as comfort in other cases for audiences to sympathize with.
Poe’s life was riddled with misfortune and misery and his literary works reflect his innermost struggle. Symbolism is one of his main forms of expression throughout his short stories and has a massive effect on the overall tone. Out of all Poe’s works, …show more content…

The house is introduced by mentioning “a … fissure ... extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zig-zag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn” (1175), symbolizing its inevitable collapse bringing a gruesome conclusion to the story. The unstable foundation symbolizes the state and nature of the remaining family members, who have both fallen ill. The sudden subsidence of the house while the two siblings are coming to their end represents the complete decimation of the family tree. The stories narrator states, “the hideous dropping off of the veil,” (1173) which not only further symbolizes and adds to the theme of death, but also appears to reference a work by Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil”. Overall, “The Fall of the House of Usher” uses symbolism to represent the falling out of family, emphasizing the build up of their own personal and structural

Get Access