Examples Of Diction In The Black Cat
In the short story "The Black Cat", Edgar Allan Poe uses gruesome detail and diction to establish his rule of one effect and the death of one major character.
One of Poe's rules for 19th Century Poetry is that writing should exhibit one effect or one purpose, which is to scare the reader. Poe uses diction and detail to put disturbing images into people's head. In "The Black Cat" the narrator declines from sanity to madness. Poe uses detail to set up the situation where the narrator goes insane. On page 2 the narrator states that "[his] original soul seemed, at one, to take its flight from [his] body", due to alcohol the narrator loses all control of his body and every fiber of his soul is ripped out. This detail creates a scary effect and …show more content…
In "The Black Cat" the narrator spends two paragraphs describing his then delightful pet. But as the story progresses both the narrator and the black cat change dramatically. The death of one major character sets Poe's poetry aside from the rest, the climatic scene that takes place not only sets up a mood but it also causes drama and conflict in the story as seen in the detail that takes place on page 2 and 3. On page 3, the narrator pens "in cool blood, I slipped a noose around its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree"; with detail like slipping a "noose" onto a cat or "[hanging]" a cat from the limb of a tree a description like that doesn't sit well in anyone's mind. As the narrator continues "I hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart" there is so much emotion shown through the narrator words like "tears streaming" and "bitterest remorse" reflect the narrators true feelings for the black cat and give the readers insight into the narrator. The death of the narrator's wife is another death that Poe creates to cause a deeper melancholic atmosphere. While attempting to kill yet his second black cat, the narrator's wife steps in and interferes with the killing, in return the wife is killed. The narrator writes "this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more the
One of Poe's rules for 19th Century Poetry is that writing should exhibit one effect or one purpose, which is to scare the reader. Poe uses diction and detail to put disturbing images into people's head. In "The Black Cat" the narrator declines from sanity to madness. Poe uses detail to set up the situation where the narrator goes insane. On page 2 the narrator states that "[his] original soul seemed, at one, to take its flight from [his] body", due to alcohol the narrator loses all control of his body and every fiber of his soul is ripped out. This detail creates a scary effect and …show more content…
In "The Black Cat" the narrator spends two paragraphs describing his then delightful pet. But as the story progresses both the narrator and the black cat change dramatically. The death of one major character sets Poe's poetry aside from the rest, the climatic scene that takes place not only sets up a mood but it also causes drama and conflict in the story as seen in the detail that takes place on page 2 and 3. On page 3, the narrator pens "in cool blood, I slipped a noose around its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree"; with detail like slipping a "noose" onto a cat or "[hanging]" a cat from the limb of a tree a description like that doesn't sit well in anyone's mind. As the narrator continues "I hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart" there is so much emotion shown through the narrator words like "tears streaming" and "bitterest remorse" reflect the narrators true feelings for the black cat and give the readers insight into the narrator. The death of the narrator's wife is another death that Poe creates to cause a deeper melancholic atmosphere. While attempting to kill yet his second black cat, the narrator's wife steps in and interferes with the killing, in return the wife is killed. The narrator writes "this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more the