The Black Cat Mood
The Bible gives one of the earliest and most famous accounts of the origins of sin and evil. In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve, who at first live peacefully and without sin in the Garden of Eden, break God's only law by eating an apple from the forbidden tree. An angry God places a curse on Adam, Eve, and all future peoples so that they will now be born with original sin, thus allowing evil to enter the world. Since this ancient story, many have attempted to understand further the development of evil inside the soul of man. A literary pattern has developed which reveals the growth of evil and perverseness inside its characters in the Gothic romance. Gothic romances attempt to create effects of the frightful and perverse through displaying
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personal wickedness and self-destruction. The noted author Edgar Allan Poe is one such man who had success at writing Gothic romances. Poe is known to work best with the elements of the grotesque and foul, which are key components of a Gothic romance. Poe impressively mapped out the manifestation of evil inside his characters as well as projected conditions of psychic nightmare known to be found in a Gothic romance. One such Edgar Allan Poe story, "The Black Cat" contains a main character, the narrator, who gradually succumbs to evil. The narrator conceals a repressed inner being of evil that is released by the presence of his two mysterious black cats. Throughout the story, Poe utilizes several literary devices to illustrate the narrator's immoral thoughts and actions attributable to his relations with these cats. Therefore, the literary characteristics of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" portray the elements of a Gothic romance.
Initially, the plot of "The Black Cat" parallels the plot of a typical Gothic romance. One of the distinct components of the Gothic romance plot that "The Black Cat" fulfills is the creation of the themes of dramatic mystery. H.R. Steeves describes dramatic mystery as containing the themes of "disappearance [. . . or] an unsolved crime" (252). Ann Radcliffe further adds that the destruction of the soul "either through a compact with the powers of evil or the commission of an inexplicable crime" also appears as a theme of dramatic mystery (qtd. in Steeves 253). Likewise, the plot of "The Black Cat" also develops these themes of dramatic mystery; the disappearance, the unsolved crime, and the destruction of the soul. The narrator in the story first creates the theme of disappearance by concealing his murdered wife's body. One day, as the narrator and his wife descend the staircase into the cellar, the black cat causes the narrator to nearly lose his footing. In turn, the narrator flies into a fit of rage and attempts to take an axe to the cat. His wife, trying to save the cat's life, catches hold of the axe. Then the enraged the narrator "burie[s this] axe in her brain" (Poe 146). The narrator, an evil and perverse character, murders his wife as a result of his hatred of the black cat. The degree of this hatred allows him to become so angry at his wife, who tries to prevent him from murdering the cat, that he kills her "with entire deliberation [. . .] concealing [her] body in the cellar wall" to avoid detection of his crime (Poe 146). The narrator's hiding the body in the cellar wall creates the disappearance that is part of dramatic mystery. Since the murder of the narrator's wife goes undetected until the end of the story, the murder produces the unsolved crime that is also a component of dramatic mystery. This crime originally remains unsolved for upon his wife's disappearance, the police arrive to make inquiries and investigate the narrator's home, but find nothing. Although the police "left no nook or cranny unexplored" they are still unsure whether the narrator has murdered his wife until the conclusion of the story (Poe 147). Before the narrator gouges out the cat's eye, he recounts the feeling of his soul taking flight from his body and a more than fiendish malevolence replacing it. At this point, the narrator's deteriorating conscience and destroyed soul are apparent. The narrator rationalizes that soul has always sought to vex itself. The narrator is aware that he killed the cat for no other reason other than the cat loved him and that he knew that in killing the cat he would be committing a sin. The narrator shows no remorse for his actions thereby proving the destruction of his soul. The themes of disappearance, unsolved crime, and destruction of the soul compose the themes of dramatic mystery in "The Black Cat." Thus, the plot of "The Black Cat" contains the themes of dramatic mystery that are present in the plot of a Gothic romance. The plots of both "The Black Cat" and the Gothic romance not only contain the themes of dramatic mystery, but also the element of suspense. In a Gothic romance plot, suspense is generated when "the solution to the mystery is held back until the very end of the story" (Steeves 252). Hence, the suspense continually builds throughout the plot until the solution to the mystery at the end of the story. In the example of "The Black Cat", the plot's suspense is rapidly built as the mystery surrounding the wife's murder unfolds and remains unsolved until the story's end. Following the narrator's vicious murder of his wife and the concealment of her body, the police begin to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the narrator's wife. The police, not knowing that the body of the wife is hidden in the cellar wall, arrive at the narrator's home to question the narrator as to the mystery surrounding his wife's whereabouts. Throughout the majority of the police's visit the narrator manages to convince the police of "their assurance of [his] guiltlessness" which is intended to build the suspense contained in the story's plot (Poe 148). As the police search the house and ultimately conclude that the narrator has not committed foul play, the suspense has reached a high point because the narrator appears to have withheld the solution completely from the police. The narrator comes very close to escaping suspicion when he becomes overconfident. This overconfidence, however, allows for the mystery to be resolved at the end of the story when he gleefully raps on the wall concealing his wife's corpse and to the narrator's surprise, the black cat lets out an "utterly anomalous and inhuman [. . .] shriek" (Poe 148). The terrible cry captures the curiosity of the police and leads them to discover the hidden corpse of the narrator's dead wife. Therefore, by withholding the solution to the location of the narrator's wife until the very end of the story and witnessing the swelling of the narrator's gleeful emotions, the plot of "The Black Cat" creates and heightens the suspense that is a necessary element of the Gothic romance plot. Therefore, because "The Black Cat" contains the themes of dramatic mystery and the element of suspense, the plot of "The Black Cat" parallels that of a typical Gothic romance.
Besides having a plot that conforms to the characteristics of a Gothic romance's plot, "The Black Cat" has the type of mood that parallels that of a Gothic romance mood.
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
safety from torment and fear develop. As soon as the narrator believes he has escaped his own torment, a new source of distress develops soon after. For example, soon after the murder of his first cat, a second black cat arrives, which at first appears to make the narrator forget his first cat and the terror surrounding it, but the pet soon becomes a threat rather than a blessing. The narrator then grows to fear what he believes to be the cat's obsessive desire to be near him. This fear is bred essentially because the narrator feels persecuted by the presence of the cat, and the narrator dreads his inability to control his growing anger and the increasingly irritating actions of the cat. Indeed, the situation with the second cat becomes one of absolute terror as the narrator grows to "dread the beast" and what the narrator deems to be its obsessive behavior (Poe 145). Not only does he feel that the cat has obsessive behavior but the narrator's tormented mind causes him to perceive what he believes to be a gallows-like pattern upon the second cat's chest. This image caused the narrator distress, "and for this, [. . . he] loathed, and dreaded, and would have to rid [him]self of the monster" (Poe 145). Throughout the narrator's festering problem in coexisting with the cat, the narrator's own thoughts create the overall mood of fear. Thus, in "The Black Cat" the narrator's being ceaselessly threatened with fear leads to the sustaining of a mood of fear just as the continuing threats to the safety and stability of the narrator leads to the sustaining mood of fear in all Gothic romances. Therefore, both the creation and the sustaining of the mood in "The Black Cat" parallel the creation and sustaining of the mood of a Gothic romance.
Besides sharing common features of plot and mood, both "The Black Cat" and the Gothic romance contain villains. The villain of "The Black Cat" as well as that of a Gothic romance is consumed with evil plots and motives. Typically, the villains in the Gothic romance express their evil in psychotic and maniacal ways. The villain, then, is usually "emotionally unstable and is obsessed with evil motives" (Steeves 253). In "The Black Cat," the narrator fits the characterization of a Gothic villain. The narrator becomes knowingly and willingly obsessed with evil by justifying his weaknesses, particularly his emotional instability. One night as the narrator returned home very inebriated, the cat inflicted a small wound upon the narrator's hand. In retaliation, the narrator gouged out one of the cat's eyes. The narrator described how "the fury of a demon instantly possessed" he and that he no longer knew the man he had become (Poe 142). The narrator explained that his "original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from [his] body; and a more fiendish malevolence, gin nurtured, thrilled every fibre of [his] brain" (Poe 142). After poking out the eye of the first cat, the narrator, rather than feeling guilt for maiming an animal, rationalizes his unstable behavior toward the cat as well as willingly admits that he is succumbing to evil and "the spirit of perverseness" (Poe 142). The morning the narrator hangs the cat, the narrator knows that the cat's murder is wrong. Despite this fact, he feels that his soul has always had an "unfathomable longing [. . .] to vex itself" (Poe 143). The narrator now knows that his entire existence is threatening to be consumed by evil. Therefore, the narrator in "The Black Cat" fulfills the characteristic of a Gothic romance villain who is obsessed with evil and the justification of it. As a result, "The Black Cat's" narrator possesses an obsession with evil just like the villain of a Gothic romance. The Gothic villain's evil actions often "lead to the torture and murder of his innocent victims" (Steeves 253). The actions of the narrator in "The Black Cat" also result in the murder of innocent victims, like his defenseless wife. The narrator quickly becomes consumed by anger towards his wife because she defends the dreaded black cat. The narrator's obsessive hatred of the cat consumes his already warped mind causing him to direct his anger and violence indiscriminately towards others. In kind, the narrator, besieged by rage "more than demoniacal" directed at his wife over her protection of the dreaded black cat, impulsively "buried [an] axe in her brain" (Poe 146). Such acts of violence and murder against defenseless, innocent victims demonstrate that the narrator of "The Black Cat" fits the characteristics of a Gothic romance villain. Therefore, the narrator of "The Black Cat" possesses the evil characteristics and commits the evil acts that define a villain in a Gothic romance.
Thus, the literary characteristics evident in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" depict the elements of a Gothic romance. The skillful development of these Gothic romance elements by Poe in his story "The Black Cat" provide a vivid description of the soul of a man possessed by evil. Poe's writings are almost systematic in their breakdown of the psychological state of the evil villain in his stories. The extensive examination of the Gothic villain present in Poe's stories illustrates a fundamental human weakness, the ability to become evil.
personal wickedness and self-destruction. The noted author Edgar Allan Poe is one such man who had success at writing Gothic romances. Poe is known to work best with the elements of the grotesque and foul, which are key components of a Gothic romance. Poe impressively mapped out the manifestation of evil inside his characters as well as projected conditions of psychic nightmare known to be found in a Gothic romance. One such Edgar Allan Poe story, "The Black Cat" contains a main character, the narrator, who gradually succumbs to evil. The narrator conceals a repressed inner being of evil that is released by the presence of his two mysterious black cats. Throughout the story, Poe utilizes several literary devices to illustrate the narrator's immoral thoughts and actions attributable to his relations with these cats. Therefore, the literary characteristics of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" portray the elements of a Gothic romance.
Initially, the plot of "The Black Cat" parallels the plot of a typical Gothic romance. One of the distinct components of the Gothic romance plot that "The Black Cat" fulfills is the creation of the themes of dramatic mystery. H.R. Steeves describes dramatic mystery as containing the themes of "disappearance [. . . or] an unsolved crime" (252). Ann Radcliffe further adds that the destruction of the soul "either through a compact with the powers of evil or the commission of an inexplicable crime" also appears as a theme of dramatic mystery (qtd. in Steeves 253). Likewise, the plot of "The Black Cat" also develops these themes of dramatic mystery; the disappearance, the unsolved crime, and the destruction of the soul. The narrator in the story first creates the theme of disappearance by concealing his murdered wife's body. One day, as the narrator and his wife descend the staircase into the cellar, the black cat causes the narrator to nearly lose his footing. In turn, the narrator flies into a fit of rage and attempts to take an axe to the cat. His wife, trying to save the cat's life, catches hold of the axe. Then the enraged the narrator "burie[s this] axe in her brain" (Poe 146). The narrator, an evil and perverse character, murders his wife as a result of his hatred of the black cat. The degree of this hatred allows him to become so angry at his wife, who tries to prevent him from murdering the cat, that he kills her "with entire deliberation [. . .] concealing [her] body in the cellar wall" to avoid detection of his crime (Poe 146). The narrator's hiding the body in the cellar wall creates the disappearance that is part of dramatic mystery. Since the murder of the narrator's wife goes undetected until the end of the story, the murder produces the unsolved crime that is also a component of dramatic mystery. This crime originally remains unsolved for upon his wife's disappearance, the police arrive to make inquiries and investigate the narrator's home, but find nothing. Although the police "left no nook or cranny unexplored" they are still unsure whether the narrator has murdered his wife until the conclusion of the story (Poe 147). Before the narrator gouges out the cat's eye, he recounts the feeling of his soul taking flight from his body and a more than fiendish malevolence replacing it. At this point, the narrator's deteriorating conscience and destroyed soul are apparent. The narrator rationalizes that soul has always sought to vex itself. The narrator is aware that he killed the cat for no other reason other than the cat loved him and that he knew that in killing the cat he would be committing a sin. The narrator shows no remorse for his actions thereby proving the destruction of his soul. The themes of disappearance, unsolved crime, and destruction of the soul compose the themes of dramatic mystery in "The Black Cat." Thus, the plot of "The Black Cat" contains the themes of dramatic mystery that are present in the plot of a Gothic romance. The plots of both "The Black Cat" and the Gothic romance not only contain the themes of dramatic mystery, but also the element of suspense. In a Gothic romance plot, suspense is generated when "the solution to the mystery is held back until the very end of the story" (Steeves 252). Hence, the suspense continually builds throughout the plot until the solution to the mystery at the end of the story. In the example of "The Black Cat", the plot's suspense is rapidly built as the mystery surrounding the wife's murder unfolds and remains unsolved until the story's end. Following the narrator's vicious murder of his wife and the concealment of her body, the police begin to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the narrator's wife. The police, not knowing that the body of the wife is hidden in the cellar wall, arrive at the narrator's home to question the narrator as to the mystery surrounding his wife's whereabouts. Throughout the majority of the police's visit the narrator manages to convince the police of "their assurance of [his] guiltlessness" which is intended to build the suspense contained in the story's plot (Poe 148). As the police search the house and ultimately conclude that the narrator has not committed foul play, the suspense has reached a high point because the narrator appears to have withheld the solution completely from the police. The narrator comes very close to escaping suspicion when he becomes overconfident. This overconfidence, however, allows for the mystery to be resolved at the end of the story when he gleefully raps on the wall concealing his wife's corpse and to the narrator's surprise, the black cat lets out an "utterly anomalous and inhuman [. . .] shriek" (Poe 148). The terrible cry captures the curiosity of the police and leads them to discover the hidden corpse of the narrator's dead wife. Therefore, by withholding the solution to the location of the narrator's wife until the very end of the story and witnessing the swelling of the narrator's gleeful emotions, the plot of "The Black Cat" creates and heightens the suspense that is a necessary element of the Gothic romance plot. Therefore, because "The Black Cat" contains the themes of dramatic mystery and the element of suspense, the plot of "The Black Cat" parallels that of a typical Gothic romance.
Besides having a plot that conforms to the characteristics of a Gothic romance's plot, "The Black Cat" has the type of mood that parallels that of a Gothic romance mood.
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
safety from torment and fear develop. As soon as the narrator believes he has escaped his own torment, a new source of distress develops soon after. For example, soon after the murder of his first cat, a second black cat arrives, which at first appears to make the narrator forget his first cat and the terror surrounding it, but the pet soon becomes a threat rather than a blessing. The narrator then grows to fear what he believes to be the cat's obsessive desire to be near him. This fear is bred essentially because the narrator feels persecuted by the presence of the cat, and the narrator dreads his inability to control his growing anger and the increasingly irritating actions of the cat. Indeed, the situation with the second cat becomes one of absolute terror as the narrator grows to "dread the beast" and what the narrator deems to be its obsessive behavior (Poe 145). Not only does he feel that the cat has obsessive behavior but the narrator's tormented mind causes him to perceive what he believes to be a gallows-like pattern upon the second cat's chest. This image caused the narrator distress, "and for this, [. . . he] loathed, and dreaded, and would have to rid [him]self of the monster" (Poe 145). Throughout the narrator's festering problem in coexisting with the cat, the narrator's own thoughts create the overall mood of fear. Thus, in "The Black Cat" the narrator's being ceaselessly threatened with fear leads to the sustaining of a mood of fear just as the continuing threats to the safety and stability of the narrator leads to the sustaining mood of fear in all Gothic romances. Therefore, both the creation and the sustaining of the mood in "The Black Cat" parallel the creation and sustaining of the mood of a Gothic romance.
Besides sharing common features of plot and mood, both "The Black Cat" and the Gothic romance contain villains. The villain of "The Black Cat" as well as that of a Gothic romance is consumed with evil plots and motives. Typically, the villains in the Gothic romance express their evil in psychotic and maniacal ways. The villain, then, is usually "emotionally unstable and is obsessed with evil motives" (Steeves 253). In "The Black Cat," the narrator fits the characterization of a Gothic villain. The narrator becomes knowingly and willingly obsessed with evil by justifying his weaknesses, particularly his emotional instability. One night as the narrator returned home very inebriated, the cat inflicted a small wound upon the narrator's hand. In retaliation, the narrator gouged out one of the cat's eyes. The narrator described how "the fury of a demon instantly possessed" he and that he no longer knew the man he had become (Poe 142). The narrator explained that his "original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from [his] body; and a more fiendish malevolence, gin nurtured, thrilled every fibre of [his] brain" (Poe 142). After poking out the eye of the first cat, the narrator, rather than feeling guilt for maiming an animal, rationalizes his unstable behavior toward the cat as well as willingly admits that he is succumbing to evil and "the spirit of perverseness" (Poe 142). The morning the narrator hangs the cat, the narrator knows that the cat's murder is wrong. Despite this fact, he feels that his soul has always had an "unfathomable longing [. . .] to vex itself" (Poe 143). The narrator now knows that his entire existence is threatening to be consumed by evil. Therefore, the narrator in "The Black Cat" fulfills the characteristic of a Gothic romance villain who is obsessed with evil and the justification of it. As a result, "The Black Cat's" narrator possesses an obsession with evil just like the villain of a Gothic romance. The Gothic villain's evil actions often "lead to the torture and murder of his innocent victims" (Steeves 253). The actions of the narrator in "The Black Cat" also result in the murder of innocent victims, like his defenseless wife. The narrator quickly becomes consumed by anger towards his wife because she defends the dreaded black cat. The narrator's obsessive hatred of the cat consumes his already warped mind causing him to direct his anger and violence indiscriminately towards others. In kind, the narrator, besieged by rage "more than demoniacal" directed at his wife over her protection of the dreaded black cat, impulsively "buried [an] axe in her brain" (Poe 146). Such acts of violence and murder against defenseless, innocent victims demonstrate that the narrator of "The Black Cat" fits the characteristics of a Gothic romance villain. Therefore, the narrator of "The Black Cat" possesses the evil characteristics and commits the evil acts that define a villain in a Gothic romance.
Thus, the literary characteristics evident in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" depict the elements of a Gothic romance. The skillful development of these Gothic romance elements by Poe in his story "The Black Cat" provide a vivid description of the soul of a man possessed by evil. Poe's writings are almost systematic in their breakdown of the psychological state of the evil villain in his stories. The extensive examination of the Gothic villain present in Poe's stories illustrates a fundamental human weakness, the ability to become evil.