Alcoholism In The Black Cat By Edgar Allen Poe
Alcohol can change a person. It often times changes how they think and behave, but not in a positive way. When a person is addicted to alcohol, they are called an alcoholic. In “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator becomes an alcoholic and it changes how he treats those around him. The narrator faces an internal struggle dealing with his alcoholism and the consequences of his actions. The author shows these struggles through the use of metaphors, irony, and symbolism. First, Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism to show the consequences the narrator faces. The black cat, Pluto, symbolizes bad luck. “I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree” (Poe 6). The name Pluto comes from the god of the underworld, and symbolizes
death. The narrator later gets another cat, nearly identical to Pluto, except it has a white patch on its chest, “…it was now, I say, the image of a hideous—of a ghastly thing—of the GALLOWS!” The narrator seeing gallows in the white patch symbolizes Pluto’s murder. Next, the author uses irony to show the narrators struggle with alcoholism. The narrator loved animals, particularly Pluto. One night, he comes home intoxicated and cuts out Pluto’s eye, and eventually, out of “guilt”, hanged the cat, “…grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” (Poe 5) “I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree” (Poe 6). The narrator deals with the remorse of injuring the cat by taking it’s life, although he once loved it.
death. The narrator later gets another cat, nearly identical to Pluto, except it has a white patch on its chest, “…it was now, I say, the image of a hideous—of a ghastly thing—of the GALLOWS!” The narrator seeing gallows in the white patch symbolizes Pluto’s murder. Next, the author uses irony to show the narrators struggle with alcoholism. The narrator loved animals, particularly Pluto. One night, he comes home intoxicated and cuts out Pluto’s eye, and eventually, out of “guilt”, hanged the cat, “…grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” (Poe 5) “I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree” (Poe 6). The narrator deals with the remorse of injuring the cat by taking it’s life, although he once loved it.