...Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat, much like many of his other stories, is a tale of inexplicable violence and perverseness, and yet it is an amazing insight into the mind’s ability to observe itself and even give itself away, as evidenced in end of the tale of the narrator. Indeed, even the narrator himself is aware of this fact that he is going insane somehow, and even with this knowledge and the knowledge that he continues to proceed in his insanity it’s not enough to stop his descent. The narrator takes time and details each aspect of his madness, in a sense observing his actions from a detached perspective, even though the story is written in the first person, like a psychiatrist. There is however a tinge of awareness and perhaps some sense of guilt in how the narrator conveys the story. Much of his actions make no sense and seem to have no logical intent, and perhaps that is what Poe tries to convey when the narrator describes and his actions in the word, “PERVERSENESS.” One interesting note is that the narrator defends himself in the very beginning with “Yet, mad am I not—” and yet he begins to logically process his reactions with, “have terrified — have tortured — have destroyed me.” Thus, in the very act of saying he isn’t mad, and then by logically outlining his guilt, he shows his own descent into madness and his objectivity throughout the process, questioning whether the narrator feels guilty at all or not. After The Black Cat begins with the narrator’s description...
Words: 1068 - Pages: 5
...associated black cats with superstition. Historically, in the US but also in UK, black cats were associated with witchcraft and evil. Black cat was sign of poverty in China, in Europe is bad luck to have a black cat cross your path. In Canada, bans on the adoption of black cats on Halloween were common until a few years ago. But, is some cultures, black cats they were celebrated and seen as a sign of good luck. In UK, Japan and Australia it is quite the opposite: black cat is a sign of good fortune and good luck. For 19th century sailors black cats were kept on ships as they believed it would bring them luck. Fisherman’s wives would keep black cats while their husbands were away to sea, believing they...
Words: 809 - Pages: 4
...On top of that, the main character of “The Black Cat” provides several reasons for his abnormal behaviors which ultimately indicates his insanity. The narrator once who was kind becomes abusive and violent due to alcoholism: “I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others” (6), and he kills his pet Pluto. I think that the narrator is also obsessed with Pluto’s eyes just like the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” is into the old man’s eyes. This is because the narrator’s cruelty and violence has been witnessed by Pluto, his eyes, and he cannot stand it. Moreover, ironically, the narrator tries to escape from his guilt by killing Pluto, and this clearly shows that he has some mental issues. The narrator...
Words: 327 - Pages: 2
...and saw figure of a black cat. “Pluto? Is that you?” I mumbled toward it. Then it was like a shine ray directed toward the object, it revealed Pluto. It was really Pluto then I saw Pluto’s red eyes shine. I became scared and ran away from it. Pluto walked closer towards me. The cat looks so scary with the red eyes and blood non-stop flowed out from the cat’s eyes. Did Pluto cries? But why the tears turned to blood? ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- How far you could run in just a square room cell? Wherever I ran, Pluto still walked towards me and it getting closer. I gave up when I felt tired and stood still at the corner of the room. The cold wind blew in made me shivered in fright. Pluto walked closer towards me and rubbed his body at my legs. I thought Pluto wanted to claim what I did towards him. I felt touched with his actions. Pluto still knew his master and did his job to accompany me when I felt like being alone. Indeed I am alone without anyone in the room. How could I be cruel to him? Although I had killed him but he is still kind toward me? Picture 2 ------------------------------------------------- Then I thought of something. I had killed Pluto then how could Pluto appear in front of me? This is so confusing. Then I saw a white hair area at his body, it was the cat in my new housing area last time. “You aren’t Pluto!” shouted him and kicked the cat away from him. The cat that had been kicked...
Words: 1340 - Pages: 6
...Poe, “The Black Cat” (1843) The second black cat, which came into the picture after the murder of the first black cat, was most likely a projection of the man’s imagination because he felt guilty for killing the first innocent animal. The first cat was all black, while the second cat had a distinct white pattern on a part of it’s body. Black has been known to be associated with power, sophistication, mystery, and seriousness, and also has superstitious qualities when seen on cats. White, however, is associated with pureness, innocence, goodness, cleanness, and peacefulness. Since this is a figment of the main characters imagination, the two cats are most likely one in the same in the character’s mind, the white spot most likely marks the second...
Words: 895 - Pages: 4
...In Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Black Cat," the theme of the story was that he was feeling hatred towards his cats. The narrator of the story was having problems with his temper towards his cat. In this story, he started explaining what was happening to him before the incidents with the cats. He had said, "I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others" (Poe). The narrator of the story was beginning to get more irritated with the car as time had went on, and it shown by the way he was beginning to act. He was not acting as nice towards the feline and he would get more snippy than usual towards the cat. The attitude was just for the cat, none of the other animals that him and his wife had owned....
Words: 373 - Pages: 2
...Poe’s short story “The Black Cat”, many things are repeated and follows a similar pattern to the rest of his stories. A black cat is killed and a very similar one is found shortly after, all while the narrator is losing his mind. Through the use of diction and syntax, Poe reveals that the narrator's voice is mad. The narrator uses syntax to affect his voice and to sound insane. Not only are his ideas insane but also the way he describes them. Through the use of long, run on sentences as a form of syntax, the narrator describes many ideas at once. After stating a few ideas, “...[he] resolved to dig a grave in the floor of the cellar… casting it in the well in the yard---about packing it up in a box as if merchandise…[he] determined...
Words: 500 - Pages: 2
...Literary essay - The Black Cat Alcoholism is known by many as a disease. A never-ending addiction, which can completely change the abuser’s personality to a point where he or she is almost unrecognizable, compared to how he or she was before. In the story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Poe Allen, 1842, the protagonist goes from an animal-loving husband to an animal and wife -abusing psychopath, due to him being constantly under the effect of alcohol. The narrator in the story is on his death row, and he is looking back at earlier events while confessing his sins. In his childhood, the narrator was very fond of animals, and was given many pets by his parents, which he enjoyed taking care of. “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions” (P.7 L. 18-20). The narrator was as a child, very sweet, kind and lighthearted, which is why he took great pleasure in spending time with his pets. Unfortunately, he was also bullied, which resulted in him spending all his time caressing the animals, because they liked him compared to his bullies. As a grown man, the narrator gets a new cat but ends up mistreating it. He starts drinking a lot and feeling irritable and violent while even abusing his wife and his other pets. This causes the black cat, Pluto; to avoid and neglect him, because it is feeling scared. From the narrators point of view however, he feels that it does not...
Words: 717 - Pages: 3
...The Black Cat by: Edgar Allan Poe (Published 1845) FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not -- and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified -- have tortured -- have destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they have presented little but Horror -- to many they will seem less terrible than barroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place -- some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects. From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and, in my manhood, I derived from it one of...
Words: 3944 - Pages: 16
...Den svarta katten 1. Berättaren är personen som berättelsen kretsar kring och det är han som utför de hemska handlingarna. I hans tidiga barndom var han trevlig och känd för sitt milda och böjliga sinneslag. Han älskade också djur och växte upp bland många djur av olika slag. De gav han tillfredställelse och han var aldrig så nöjd som han var när han tillbringade tid med dem. Denna förälskelse för djur följde med honom upp i vuxen ålder. Det var dock då det började svikta och han blev alkoholist. Det blev bara värre och han blev sinnessjuk och vansinnig. Han försöker skylla på alkoholen men egentligen är han mentalt sjuk och behöver hjälp. Han är en djur älskande, fru misshandlande djur dödare. ”-min fruktan och avsky hade ytterligare stegrats till följd av det värsta hjärnspöke man kan tänka sig.” 2. ”Jag varken väntar eller begär att någon skall sätta tro till den hemska och ändå mycket vardagliga berättelse som jag nu tänker skriva ner”… Inledningen gör så att man känner av att det är något märkligt med personen. Att han är tokig men försöker dölja det eller förklara bort det. Inledningen gör också så att man blir bered på att något ruskigt ska hända. 3. Texten utgör en blandning mellan terror och horror skräck. Där terror skräck är en mer blodig och lemlästande skräckhistoria. ”Genom hennes ingrepp stegrades mitt raseri till djävulskt vanvett. Jag ryckte lös min arm och begrov yxans bett i min hustrus hjärna.” Och där horror skräck är en mer djupgående psykologisk...
Words: 546 - Pages: 3
...Analyses of Black Cat Do you believe that some mistakes drag you into another life? or Would you like to torture something? Maybe, life will make you some errors and you will accompany it or you will make your own way. Edgar Allan Poe narrates a situation in which making dilemma and concluding murder, feeling of guilty, and addiction in his story Black Cat. Edgar Allan Poe, (born January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. He was 34 when the story Black Cat was produced. The Black Cat was first produced in the United States, The Saturday Evening Post on August 19, 1843. As the story begins, the narrator is in jail awaiting his execution, which will occur on the following day, for the brutal murder of his wife. At that point, the rest of the story is told in flashback, as the narrator pens “...the most wild, yet homely narrative...whose events have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed him.” The story, which is whole text, has many adaptations. For example, Universal Pictures made two films titled The Black Cat, one in 1934, starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, and another in1941 starring Lugosi and Basil Rathbone. Both films claimed to have been "suggested by" Poe's story, but they don’t resemble to the story. The middle segment of director Roger Corman's 1962 anthology film Tales of Terror combines the story...
Words: 1526 - Pages: 7
...hideous heart!” that just proves he’s mad. Just imagine a family member was suffering from all of these, no one wants to have to go through that, it’s not something that happens to many people. All of those reasons affected his life, he didn’t just write about it, he lived it as well. Meanwhile, Poe being an alcoholic was a very big part of his writing on a book called The Black Cat. As he started to drink, he went crazy. He ended up killing his cat because his drinking was making him unstable, he killed his...
Words: 443 - Pages: 2
...“To make the world his own, he swooped On thrushes, thrashers, jays, and chickadees ,At noon he drove away a big black cat. A mockingbird can sound like anything. He imitates the world he drove away” With this poem the bat show Homage to the mockingbird with the words he uses. 3.After completing your summary, predict how the mockingbird will react to hearing the bat's poem. Will he like it or dislike it? Why? Answer: The mockingbird would probably be happy because the bat shows how Mature he is at mocking. Now, in the moonlight, he sits here and sings. A thrush is singing, then a thrasher, then a jay. Then, all at once, a cat begins meowing. A mockingbird can sound like anything. He imitates the world he drove away. All day the mockingbird has owned the yard. This is good for the mockingbird, and also good for the bats and the chipmunk because the mockingbird showed them a new Introduction to life without that many predators. Without that many predators they can Brawl more without having to be scared of...
Words: 423 - Pages: 2
...Poe’s works are all interesting and intriguing. Many of Poe’s stories leave the reader wondering, “What the hell was wrong with him?” “Is he insane?” “Is there any other explanation for this?” In “The Black Cat,” the narrator is insane because he killed his wife and cat with no remorse. Alcoholism drove the narrator to insanity. He did not care about the consequences of his actions anymore. He just acted on the spot due to his poor judgement caused by the effects of alcohol. He was trying to get sent to hell. The narrator spends his last day alive writing down the story of how it all happened; how he became maniacal. As stated previously, alcoholism drove the narrator to insanity. He easily fell into the cycle of alcoholism: drinking to forget but always remembering. He started abusing his pets because of this. This is shown in the story by, “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” (Poe 13). This was done due to the effects of alcohol. When he woke up the next morning sober, he cried over his actions. He then proceeded to drown his sorrows in alcohol. Drinking alcohol is usually known for giving one “liquid courage,” which is basically...
Words: 572 - Pages: 3
...In “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe, a man hangs a cat and murders his wife. Some believe that the man who does this was sane and therefore guilty and others believe that he was not guilty because he was insane and mentally unstable. He does these hurtful things under the influence of alcohol. After the alcohol wears off, he recognizes the harm he has done and feels remorse. Although, the man was a depressed alcoholic with a bad temper, he was sane and therefore guilty of his crime. The man’s sanity is proven through many remarks throughout the story. For example, after the man killed the cat, he states, “I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime which I had been guilty.” This quote demonstrates that he was...
Words: 578 - Pages: 3
