The Narrator's Guiltless Existence in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Story, The Black Cat

Poe develops suspense in his narrative “The Black Cat” by using the following events: cutting the cat’s eye out, killing his wife, and hiding his wife body. After a night of drinking, Poe states the narrator becomes furious because he thinks Pluto is avoiding him. The narrator states “I took from my waist coat pocket a pen knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe 2) The reader now realize the narrator is insane. He or she is shocked because he or she now understands that the narrator is unpredictable.

Concerning “The Black Cat”, Poe vividly portrays individuality as a connecting theme to Romanticism because of the narrator’s treatment of each character of the story’s characters, his wife and the cat. In the story, the narrator kills his wife in a “more than demonical” rage, for no other reason than to express his rage at his wife’s interference between him and the cat (723). He acted alone, with no prompting from anyone other than himself. The cat as a character receives no different of treatment from the narrator’s wife: even the wife’s own intervention on the cat’s behalf does not save it from its eventual demise, rather the narrator “firmly resolved to put into death”(723). The only way the cat escapes death is through hinting at the narrator’s murder to the police through the house’s walls.

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 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.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat,” the unnamed narrator recounts the way his life has fallen apart due to a series of terrifying incidents he has with his pet cat, Pluto. As the story develops, his actions grow more grotesque and immoral as he tries to rid himself of the animal. In one of these instances, a fire forces the narrator to move from his well-tended house to a smaller, run-down building, which represents the deterioration of his state of mind. In this way, Edgar Allan Poe uses elements of setting to suggest that when people disregard their conscience, the resulting moral and mental decay will end in their retribution.

The Black Cat is one of Poe’s most memorable stories. The story was first published in 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. This like a study of the psychology of guilt, paired with other works by Poe. “Near the beginning of the tale, the narrator says he would be "mad indeed" if he should expect a reader to believe the story, implying that he has already been accused of madness” (Cleman). Poe is creating a sense of confusion for the readers and making them think more about the story before reading. The story is centered around a black cat and the idea of deterioration of a man. From his prison cell, the narrator is writing the story about his life which is falling apart. He has a love for animals, and for his wife that he married young. One of the things that he takes on as a hobby, is

In the story “7 The Black Cat” the author Edgar Allan Poe whites all the horror and terrible things he had done. At a young age this man was even troubled a little and it progressed into something much worse. In this story he writes down all the terrible things he’s done to animals and people because of the monster inside him. After every time he did harm to something he would talk about how it would not hurt his heart.

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe is one of Poe’s greatest literary works that embodies his signature themes of death, violence, and darkness. Poe’s main character begins his narration of his horrible wrongdoings regarding them as a “series of mere household events” (Poe 705). However, this is where Poe’s satire and irony begins and the story progresses to show the deranged mindset of this character as he tries to justify his actions. As the main character proceeds to rationalize his crime, Poe is able to convey a sense of irony through his use of foreshadowing, metaphors and symbolism.

When looking at a piece of literature through a psychological approach it is easy to apply Sigmund Freud’s theories of the id, ego, and superego, which focus on conscious and unconscious behavior. When analyzing many of Poe’s works, critics tend to look through a psychological lens. Specifically in Poe’s The Black Cat. Some critics believe that Poe’s alcoholism is reflected in the piece, but many, such as James W. Gargano “advised the tales readers to avoid the biographical pitfall of seeing Poe and the first-person narrator of The Black Cat as ‘identical literary twins’” (Piacentino 1). It is due to his childhood that Poe’s narrator in The Black Cat subconsciously places animals before humans, thus leading to him to murder his wife.

Strong feelings, such as regret, anger, and guilt, can drive people to do things that are totally out of character. The narrator in "The Black Cat" written by Edgar Allan Poe had those strong feelings following him around. Although it is not explicitly stated, the author uses symbolism to represent these ideas. Symbolism plays a big part in "The Black Cat" showing the narrator's guilt at his crimes through the second black cat's appearance, actions, and impact on the narrator.

In life, everyone should know that loving an animal means something to them, and if you do care for them then they will entertain you and love you back. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” is the same way. The narrator and his black cat are the best of friends until the man begins to drink. In “The Black Cat”, Poe uses Pluto throughout the story to symbolize death.

Edgar Allan Poe is well-known for his captivating tales of the macabre through eloquence and wit. In many of his short stories, Poe was able to exploit his audience's fears through allegory and descriptive details of murder and madness. One of Poe's captivating, yet mad, narrators helms "The Black Cat," a tale of paranoia, alcoholism, and murder. There are several things that make the narrator an intriguing character including his psychological state, the imp of the perverse, and the effect that alcoholism has on him.

It is said that knowledge is power, and it’s true. However, with power comes great responsibility and with responsibility comes mistakes. Edgar Allen Poe was an American writer, best known for his poems and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and his twists and turns. Thus, it is no surprise how his short story, “The Black Cat” went about. The story is centered around a nameless man who is known for his “... docility and humanity of [his] disposition” (1). He is very fond of animals and was given a variety of pets during his childhood. His love for animals grew with him to his manhood and soon found a women who shared his love. Soon, after getting married, they had birds, goldfish, a dog, rabbits, a monkey, and a black cat. Pluto, was the name of the cat, was the narrator's favorite pet which he fed and played with. The wife believed in a superstition that “... all black cats [are] witches in disguise” (1), which becomes significant in terms of the entire story. However, she was never serious upon the point.

A. Poe’s stories, “The Black Cat” is filled with allegories and symbolism, the most important of which is the cat itself. For a long time, black cats have been (and still are) associated with witchcraft, sin and bad luck. They are also thought to have nine lives, which might provide some answers to the existence of the second feline. Another trait of the cat’s supernaturalism is its name, taken from classical mythology - Pluto was the ruler of the underworld. The second allegory is hidden behind the brutal scene of gauging the cat’s eye with a pen knife. In literature, damaging one’s vision may indicate a literal change of vision. This act had undoubtedly changed the way Pluto and the reader perceived the narrator, and it had certainly tormented his own perception of the world as well. If it had not, he would not be reminiscing about these

The destructive power of guilt and remorse are emotions that are often experienced by humans in general, and the emotional and physical response to these emotions can be very powerful and misleading. In “The Black Cat” and the “Tale Tell Heart” Poe makes the character's have overwhelming and demented feelings of guilt. In “The Black Cat”, Poe makes the character have this feeling in one of the scenes when the narrator states “I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.”(6), these are the beginning stages of the man's hideous psychological transformation. The nature of the transformation depends on the story, here the transformation is altogether negative. This is very similar to the story “The Tale Tell Heart” when the narrator begins to go insane and obsess towards his housemate’s eye. It states, “I made up my mind to