The Tell Tale Heart And The Black Cat Analysis

Term Paper - 1
On
‘Edgar Allan Poe’s Experimental Art Of Narration With Reference To The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat ’
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for Award of Degree of
B.A. Hons. English - 4

Submitted By: Supervised By:
Annant Gaur Dr. Smita Mishra
A0706113077 Asst. Professor

Amity Institute of English Studies and Research
AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH
India

Introduction
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, also considered the part of the American Romantic Movement. He is best known for his short tales of mystery and macabre. Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered
The beginning of the content acts as making the very first impression on the mind of the readers. The beginnings of these shorts are enough to give you the hint of the potentiality that Edgar holds in his story telling. His short, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ opens with the line, “True! Nervous- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I
Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad I am not-and surely do I not dream”. So, this tale also opens with the character questioning his psychology like ‘The Tell Tale Heart’. But this tale is different in the terms of the depiction of scenario and it also deals with one more theme, i.e. the theme of memory and the accident or the unplanned murder which is caused by the tension of the planned things going wrong. The Back Cat tells the story as the name suggests of our main character and his complicated bond with his black cat, which is named as ‘Pluto’. No the cat is not haunted neither the house in which the character lives but the story starts with the character telling his readers about himself. He tells the readers that he is fond of animals and that he loves pets. He also tells the readers about his wife whom he loves a lot. The line from the short, “We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat”, depicts that how much our main character is fond of domestic animals. Then Poe ultimately draws the attention of the readers to the one significant animal that the title suggests ‘The Cat’ by adding to the line, “This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree”. Poe