The Black Cat by Ellen Edgar Poe Analysis PDF

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Analysis of “The Black Cat”-Themes and Symbolism Edgar Allen Poe was an American short story writer, playwright, and poet. Among all his famous tales such as “The Fall of the House of Usher” or “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat” stands out for its gothic horror and the demonstration of erratic behaviors. The author draws the readers into the mind of an alcoholic who murders his favorite pet and his wife. Poe uses firstperson point of view and incorporates gothic characteristics as well as symbolism to lead the audience to see the insanity, superstition, and the confusion between illusion and reality in the story. Insanity is shown throughout the play under the influence of elements such as alcoholism, which is presented by the narrator himself. At the beginning, the narrator, who is also the main character of this short story, tells the audience that he is in prison and will be sentenced to death soon. Memories flashing behind his eyes, the man tells about his happy life as a married man with beloved wife and pets. Soon, he tells us that “through the instrumentality of the fiend Intemperance—had (I blush to confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others” (Poe 4). The narrator describes “fiend Intemperance,” here meaning the addiction to drinking, as being the “instrumentality” and accountable for his inability to stop drinking. Alcohol is used by the narrator to rationale for his changes in emotion and erratic behaviors as he turned from a kind and gentle man into an aggressively violent husband. From the first-person narrative, the main character himself uses the idea of “perverseness” to explain his changes, however, this concept even further shows the insanity of his thoughts. The man uses perverseness to justify for his actions even though they are wrong. Wanting the audience’s compassion, he further mentions: “who has not, a hundred times, found

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himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such” (Poe 5). The main character suggests that perverseness is essential for human nature and still does what he knows is wrongful. Moreover, through the narrator’s formal and calm language, the audience can see the way he describes his evil doings in the most unruffled tone as if they are just normal events. For instance, when the man killed his first cat Pluto, he described: “I took from my waistcoat pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe 4). Even though the narrator uses the idea of perverseness to rationale his actions, his madness is still shown in his action and the way he tells the horrifying details calmly. The narrator implies that it is the combination between perverseness and alcohol that causes him to have violent behaviors and drives his madness, but alcohol seems to be a more logical reason. The narrator expresses his guilt after he kills Pluto indicating that he understands his crime. However, as an insane man, killing his wife does not leave him any guilt at all. In fact, after burying an axe into his wife’s skull, he still calmly thinks of ways to hide the body. Like Esther Lombardi writes in her article about this short story, the main character “rather than break down with remorse,” he puts his wife’s body up into a wall, covers it with bricks, and simply thinks he can get away with the crime. Moreover, in this part of the story, the narrator did not mention any of his emotions or feelings after he killed his wife. Alcohol seems to be the true reason for the man’s mental decline because a sober and sane person will not be able to escape from the guilt of killing their own wife (Lombardi). In “The Black Cat,” superstition is mostly carried by the narrator’s pets, which adds to the darkness and horror characteristics of the story as well as adding to the madness of man. His

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first cat is named “Pluto,” which makes the audience think of the god of the Underworld, thus thinking about death. The narrator states: “in speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise” (Poe 3). He implies that the belief in which black cat is evil is told by his wife, however, he then emphasizes that he only mentions this point because he suddenly remembers it. The fact that the man has to make a clarification about this belief of his wife contributes to the mystery of the story. The narrator makes the audience wonder whether this is an idea of his own and he is trying to manipulate it on other people. A possible interpretation can be that the man is trying to convince the reader that because the cat is a symbol of witches and evil, it is the cause of his bad behaviors. Influenced by the idea that black cats are omen of evil and bad luck, the narrator believes that his cat has led him to immorality and should be blamed for his changes as well as the hapless moments of his life. In reality, the cat is the one who sees most of the narrator’s differences as he goes from loving the cat to being a drunken and violent owner. There is a symbolic meaning within the cat, specifically its eye-a symbol of judgement. The narrator cuts Pluto’s eye out because he thinks that when the cat is blind, it will not be able to see the man’s differences. When the second black cat comes with a missing eye, the superstitious narrator cannot help but to think that this is the incarnation of Pluto (Lombardi). However, this cat does not have the eye that is used to “judge” the man anymore, that is why he loves it at the beginning. Then, the cat is blamed for the death of his wife because the narrator’s intention was to kill the cat. If it was not because the cat made him tripped, his wife would not be dead. Another event where the cat is believed to be bringing bad luck is when the man’s house gets burned out. An interesting detail is the picture of a gigantic cat with a rope around its neck on the

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wall of the burning house. This mysterious and unexplainable event makes the audience wonder the meaning behind it. Is this a supernatural event? Did the cat “take revenge” because the man killed it? The narrator implies that black cats are simple of bad luck and then tells the story in the way that connects all the miserable events to the cats, causing the audience to relate the two things to be cause and effect. While looking at the superstitions and ideas that the narrator gives the audience to justify and explain for his actions, one must consider the mental decline of the narrator, which leads to his own confusion between illusion and reality. For instance, the main character mentions that “one night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence” (Poe 4). He uses the word “fancied” which is close to “imagine.” In a drunken fury, the man loses his sense and starts indulging in illusion. Alcohol causes the narrator to see the cat as hatred and retaliate by killing it. As Lombardi states in her article, the cat here becomes a symbol of the man’s weakness as he is scared to see the one he loves turning their back against him. Therefore, the man does not necessarily kills the cat because he is angry, it can be because he just wants to deny his weakness. Another example of when the man seems to have a distorted view of reality is when he sees the image with a shape similar to that of Pluto on the wall. As the story is told by the main character himself, the audience can see all the thoughts that go on in his head. First, the narrator finds all the scientific explanations to as why it is possible for that large print to be there: “with the flames and the ammonia from the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture as I saw it” (Poe 6). Then, he changes his mind and leans toward the idea that the image is of his dead cat-Pluto. Another event where the narrator leads the audience through a series of thoughts in his mind is at the end of the story where the police finds the body of his wife and the cat in the wall. When the policemen were about to leave, the narrator

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himself stopped them and bragged about how well the wall in his house was built, accidently revealing his crime. With the reality of the situation, usually people will try to avoid everything that is related to the crime, but the man does the opposite. The narrator does not expect to hear the sound of the cat from inside the wall: “I was answered by a voice from within the tomb!—by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman” (Poe 10). The way that Poe describes the sound of the cat like a crying child so vividly and miserable may be just another imagined scene in his head. In “The Black Cat,” the narrator leads the audience through his thinking, showing his logics and reasons for all his behaviors. The first-person point of view helps the man show his emotions and thinking at its full. At the same time, it reveals confusion within his thoughts such as between illusion and reality. The black cat is an important character because it carries many symbols. To the superstitious narrator, he implies the cat as an omen of bad spirit, which should be responsible for all his woes. However, it is through the ideas and actions that the man puts on the cat where the audience can see his insanity the most. Alcohol is also another important symbol in this story. Even though the narrator focuses on blaming the cat, the reader can see clearly that alcohol has influenced his changes and caused his distorted view. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. The Black Cat. Feedbooks, 1842, klasrum.weebly.com/uploads/9/0/9/ 1/9091667/edgar_allan_poe_-_the_black_cat.pdf. Accessed 25 Mar 2020. Lombardi, Esther. “The Black Cat Study Guide.” ThoughtCo,10 Aug. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/the-black-cat-themes-and-symbols-738847. Accessed 25 Mar 2020....