According to the documentary The Mystery of Edgar Allen Poe When Poe found a job it didn’t last him long until he would be looking for another job. Poe didn’t have the money to pay the medical bills for Virginia when she was sick. Poe never grew up with biological father since his father abandon his family at a young age. Also Poe’s foster father never wanted to deal with Poe since they adopted him. All through Poe’s life he never had any kids of his own even after being together with three different women. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” (1843) thematically posits domestic violence as the result of an early 19th century husband’s failure to fulfill two patriarchal responsibilities: to biologically reproduce and to satisfy the family’s material needs.…
The only other living thing in her home was her black cat; which for the superstitious symbolizes bad luck. Alonso describes how her…
"No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its avatar and its seal- the redness and the horror of blood" (1). Edgar Allan Poe was a master of the macabre; his very stories injecting fear into the hearts of his readers. Poe's life was filled with tragedy, as several of the important women in his life, including his wife and daughter died at a young age. He utilized poems and books to express that tragedy. The short stories, "The Black Cat," and, "The Masque of the Red Death," both written by Poe, enhance the theme of fear. "The Black Cat," was about a narrator who had gone crazy and was so overcome by guilt that he went to extreme measures including…
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."…
There’s large amounts of symbolism in the story, especially in the latter half. To begin, the title of the story Cat’s Eye represents the marble that Elaine was fond of in her childhood. She stated that the marble was something she could protect herself with, and it represented her lost childhood because as time carries on, she didn’t care much for the marble and forgot about it completely till she discovered it much later on in her life. It symbolized her innocence and who she was, and when she lost the marble, she lost that part of herself as well. Later on, Elaine’s paintings have been revealed to the public, and it’s been made clear what those paintings represent. She talks about several paintings she made, describing them all in detail,…
The cat is metaphor for sin. Junior has led a boring life and thinks the “wild and alien” (26) cat will make him more interesting. However, the cat ends up hurting him more than it helps him. “The carpeting -- every last strip of it -- had been torn out of the floor, leaving an expanse of dirty plywood studded with nails, and there seemed to be a hole in the plasterboard just to the left of the window.” (38) He underestimated the risk of taking in the cat, just as man underestimates the impact of sin on his life. He thinks he can minimize its destructive power by having minimal interaction…
B. “One cat’ takes and shoves ten families out. Cat’s all over hell now…” (pg. 8, Chapter 2). This quote is an example of symbolism. The truck driver uses the animal cat to describe the people who tractor out croppers from their crops and homes. The effect of using a cat to describe someone was negative. The cat description made the reader view the person who tractors out croppers as evil, cunning and thoughtless.…
The human mind is difficult to understand as every human possesses his/her own individual thought rituals at different levels of complexities. From a psychological approach the point(s) to get across are to reveal the revelation of its author’s mind and personality. In other words, how the literature is linked with the author’s mental and emotional characteristics. Today, psychology has been introduced in most everything. Before the field of Psychology was introduced an American author, Edgar Allan Poe, was deeply aware of the complexities of the human mind and its effects on behavior. His comprehension of the human brain is embedded in short stories such as, “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado.” Edgar Allan Poe presents protagonists…
The narrator is increasing the terror and madness by making the screams scarier. The child cries starts as a soft whimpering sound. It happens so much, escalating “howl” loud and fully mature noise; puts in an “inhuman” howl like it was a beast down in the hole with half terror and half triumph. The madness and terror increases so much that the author questions if the howls are from hell by demons.…
The black bird first enters the room via the window, and perches itself on a bust of Pallas. Black is a hue often associated with sinister ideals and metaphorical darkness. Poe often uses black in his short stories and poems to convey a hellish and sometimes supernatural and always heavy darkness. In “The Black Cat,” for example, the cat portrays evil the the narrator’s mind. The black cat stands a superstitious nightmare for the narrator, who is insane with thoughts of the cat. Similarly, the black bird represents something equally as foreboding as the cat. The bird is described as being “grim” and “ancient,” as if it had stood the tests of time and was there to plague the narrator specifically. Along with the color and general murkiness of the bird, where…
In Poe’s story “The Black Cat” he presents the eye by having the narrator cut the eyeball out of a cat named Pluto. The cat injured the narrator which angered him thus triggering the awful punishment. The action of cutting out the eye of his beloved cat shows that the cat betrayed him and should be brutally punished. Also the narrator was under the influence of alcohol which ultimately made the narrator decisions more violent in nature. In Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado” he uses the eye by having the victim look into the eyes of the narrator. Poe wrote, “He turned towards me, and looked into eyes with two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication” (par. 29). The narrator took advance of the victim by pretending to be a concerned…
The Cat is a fantasy cat that knows how to talk and how to have fun in a funny way. He represents fun in a funny way without rules, instead of the type of fun parents would expect their children to have, fun with learning a lesson. Even though the Cat in the Hat does teach a lesson it happens through fun without…
The setting of "The Black Cat" creates the mood of terror and fear evident in the setting of a Gothic romance. The establishment of an emotional atmosphere of mystery and fear is very important in creating the mood of the Gothic romance. The somber, ominous setting of a Gothic romance story contributes to the formation of a mood of terror and danger by sustaining a "general air of mystery and fear" (Steeves 253). Likewise, "The Black Cat" contains an eerie setting that sustains an emotional mood of terror. One example of an eerie setting that demonstrates the mood of terror in the story is when the narrator's house burns down. The fire comes the night after the narrator is possessed by an evil impulse causing him to hang the one-eyed black cat he so dreads. Following the devastating fire only a single plaster section of a wall remains "where many persons seemed to be examining a particular portion of [the wall] with very minute and eager attention" and the narrator is filled with feelings of "wonder and [. . .] terror" as he sees the silhouette of the cat (Poe 143). The setting with the crowd of bystanders looking carefully at a mysterious silhouette on the only standing wall of the house invites the narrator's own curiosity and fear of the silhouette's likeness to the dreaded black cat. Thus, the setting of the only standing wall with the mysterious silhouette in "The Black Cat" inspires emotions such as mystery and fear that define the mood of the Gothic romance. Also, multiple threats to the stability of the narrator keep the dark mood of the Gothic romance alive in "The Black Cat." In a Gothic romance, the mood of terror is found in the "unbroken succession of threats to the narrator's peace, safety, and honor" (Steeves 252). Likewise in "The Black Cat" a series of threats to the narrator's…
In The Black Cat, the narrator lives out on a cruel and violent existence, which he ultimately blames on a poor innocent cat. In The Black Cat, it’s a lot more than just the title of the story, there are important symbols and key points that come out in the story. The protagonist’s narration of The Black Cat exhibits delusional behavior with brief interruptions of reality where he discloses his demented behavior by stating the consequences of his atrocious actions. Despite his awareness of his criminal actions, the man still blames the cat and refuses to hold himself accountable…
Pet owners love their pets, but never expect them to bring misfortune to them. In Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find and Edgar Allen Poe’s Black Cat we explore common themes of death through the owners cats. Both of these cats played a huge role resulting in the fate of their owners and the loved ones surrounded by them; they brought death and misfortune to them. They also share many similarities and differences we can find throughout each story. They differ between their importance to the story and are similar in representing death. Also both felines bring out characteristics of their owners that ultimately lead to their downfall. Both cats explore a common theme of death while sharing similarities and having their differences…