Analysis Of The Black Cat By Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, reputed as the father of American short stories, is a poet, writer and literary critic of nineteenth century. His works, most of which explore the dark side of consciousness and subconsciousness of human beings, was well-known for horror and mystery. "The Black Cat" is one of Poe's masterpieces. It depicts love, hatred and fear between men through the narration of the changing relationship between a mentally abnormal man and a black cat. Loneliness, death, torture and abnormal psychology are core elements in "The Black Cat" This thesis aims to conduct a research on how Allan Poe managed to achieve psychological horror in "The Black Cat."
Since Wayne Booth in 1961 brought up the theory of "unreliable narrators", it has been
heatedly discussed and debated in the western world. Since then, this theory has been constantly improved and refined by others, and became indispensable in the study of narratology. In recent years, this theory has added its appeal to many Chinese scholars. What is an unreliable narrator, how to identify unreliable narrators and what is the classification of them have aroused much discussion. This thesis intends to find and analyse inconsistency in the narration in hope to uncover the nature of this event.
In "The Philosophy of Composition", Allan Poe put up the theory of "utility of effect." He regard an essay as a good one if all the elements such as the tone, images and plot in this essay can work together to achieve a certain effect. He also claimed that the brevity of the work of art is similarly crucial, because readers can get an impression of the whole picture if he can finish reading at one time without the disturbance of worldly stuff. This thesis put this theory under the context the "The Black Cat", attempting to examine how these elements are organized to create a horrible effect.