Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat”
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” emphasizes the story genre of horror and romanticism. This is displayed through most of Poe’s stories including gruesome details, but furthermore he creates a nonchalant mood, which leaves the audience baffled in mind. In his story specifically, the phenomena portrayed is a man with a psychotic personality justifying and defending his irrational and disturbing acts. The repeating horror genre of Poe’s writing reveals his belief that anyone at any time can fall to madness and do things he could never imagine doing. Hence, why every story begins with a normal setting and takes a turn for an unexpected twist. In this story, the narrator begins the night before his death in prison and tries to justify that he is still sane despite the irrational acts he is about to convey. He describes himself as perfectly normal with a love for animals. He gets married very young and his wife too enjoys his pets. He specifically points out great love for his black cat named Pluto. The narrator begins drinking abundance and reports angry and violent mood swings. He began to abuse the animals and his wife, except for Pluto. At least until he came home drunk from a bar and believed Pluto was hiding from him, therefore he cuts out one of the cat’s eyes. The narrator describes how he feels bad in the morning but there is no solution to his new madness, and it will continue. Soon after he hangs Pluto from a tree. That same night his house is burned down. Only one wall stayed in tact, and it had a new impression of act with a rope around his neck. This irritates the narrator and he continues down the road of nights out drunk. He finds another black cat with white on his chest and it reminds him of Pluto. Him and his wife adore the cat and take it in. not long after, the narrator begins to hate the cat and the white splash begins to transform into the shape of “gallows”. This is angers the narrator but he doesn’t hurt the cat for a while, partly in fear. This changes when one day down in the cellar he picks up an axe to kill the cat and his wife defends the poor creature and he plunges the axe into her skull. He puts the body inside the plaster of the walls and seems to have frightened the cat away. A few days later Police arrive to inspect the house and hear a loud cry from inside the wall. They open it up and find he dead wife along with the Cat. Through the biography of Edgar Allan Poe and his suspenseful short story “The Black Cat”, understanding and analyzing his writing becomes fascinating to unravel.
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. His dad left a year after he was born and his mother died the following year. He was never officially adopted but John and Frances Allan took him in. When Poe went to University of Virginia, John was short in cash, so Poe fell into gambling. This only left him with more debt. He then came home after a year of college...
