Davis Henry 6 February 2015 Jessica League American Literature Edgar Allen Poe wrote many short stories with motifs and deeper meanings. Two of these such stories are "The Black Cat" and the Raven. These two short stories share similar motifs as they both have black animals and similar narrators. In both stories their are similar tales of despair and madness as they are driven crazy and depressed by the black animals tormenting them. Poe does a great job emphasizing and using the black animals to show how something bad is happening to the narrator. In the "The Black Cat" Poe writes about two different black cats. The first these two cats was Pluto he was considered the companion of the narrator. However once the narrator begin to drink, Pluto began to suffer from my bad temper since he was growing old and cranky. Pluto then began to become distant from the narrator as if he feared him. Because of the narrators “Disease” as he describes it, he kills the cat that he once considered his best friend. The second Cat which was not named appeared and resembled the first cat very closely except for the shapeless gray spot on its body. …show more content…
The Raven is very well described by the one word it says, "That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing farther then he uttered not a feather then he fluttered, Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before. Then the bird said “Nevermore" ("The Raven" 56-60). This shows how the Raven was driving the man crazy. “Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—("The Raven" 85). The man thought that the Raven was from hell sent out to ruin
Poe carefully details the most brutal scenes of his stories, a quality shared by many of his works. Within “The Black Cat,” three situations stand to illustrate Poe’s message: when the narrator stabs out Pluto’s eye, when the narrator hangs Pluto, and when the narrator murders his wife. Before the first violent act described in the story, the narrator is known to be a drunkard who abused his wife. No matter how despicable this may be, he is still a somewhat ordinary man. Nothing majorly sets him apart from any another, relating him to the common man. However, his affinity towards alcohol, led to “the fury of a demon” (2) that came over him as he “grasped the poor beast by the throat” (2) and proceeded to “cut one of its eyes from the socket.” (2) Poe’s gruesome description of the narrator as a destructive demon, one who was awakened by alcohol, connects his behavior to the common working-class man. Alcohol is a legal drug that can be obtained by many, and when consumed in excess leads to the uncontrollable madness that ensued. The descriptions of the act plants fear into the hearts of the readers, especially those who have consumed alcohol, of ever becoming such a
The Black Cat is short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. The Black Cat is told by an insane narrator who introduces us to his cat named Pluto, the narrator and Pluto have a weird bond. Later on in the story the narrator shows signs that he 's an alcoholic when he would mistreats his wife and the couples other animals except Pluto. Until one night the narrator comes home drunk and he thinks Pluto is avoiding him so he picks up and the cat bites his hand. In which the narrator takes a knife and stabs the cat in the eye, which puts a strain on the relationship resulting in the narrator hanging the cat from a tree. And that same night the house burns down. Months pass by and the narrator notices a cat similar to Pluto in fact the cat is missing
The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, is instead from the latter end of the Romantic era. This narrative poem recounts a scene in which a raven visits a mourning, distraught lover, who serves as the narrator. Both of these works display dramatic presentation, symbolism, and a great sense of emotional power to create a frightening scene. Poe and Fuseli each infuse their works with dramatic energy.
A common theme that is seen throughout many of Edgar Allan Poe’s text, is madness. Madness that will make the whole world turn upside down and around again. Madness that takes over somebody’s life. Madness and eye imagery is present in both “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Tale Heart” by Poe where madness is at first a fairy tale but then ends with a crash back to reality.Both stories share components of murder and insanity, and are very similar, not at first glance but if looked at more closely.
The raven was "more of a changer than a original creator" (Mitchell 157). He then used that to his advantage while trying to steal the light. He transformed into a leaf that then flew into the chief's daughters water which she swallowed so, he became her new baby. His plan was to "transform himself once more" (Mitchell 158) into a baby that would soon become part of their family. He disguised himself as a child to gain access into their home.
Edgar Allan Poe wrote that the single effect was the most important aspect of a short story, which everything must contribute to this effect. Poe’s gothic tale “The Black Cat” was written trying to achieve an effect of shocking insanity. In this first person narrative the narrator tells of his decline from sanity to madness, all because of an obsession with two (or possibly one) black cats. These ebony creatures finally drive him to take the life his wife, whose death he unsuccessfully tries to conceal.
for dark, mysterious, and bizarre works of fiction. His works sometimes reflected his life experiences and hardships he tried to overcome. Examples of the troubles in his life include alcoholism, having his works rejected over and over, being broke, and losing his family, even his beloved wife to tuberculosis. There is no wonder why his works are so dark and evil, they were taken from his life. A theme is defined as the major or central idea of a work. Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat”, contains six major themes that are discussed in this paper. They include the home, violence, drugs and alcohol, freedom and confinement, justice and judgement, and transformation.
The setting in the short story “The Raven” is dark and gloomy. The darkness in the story mimics the emotions and situation that the main character is feeling. The main character is alone throughout the story as he is in the actual plot. The raven appears only when the main character of the short story “The Raven” is going through internal conflicts of depression. The evil ominous darkness will nevermore leave the main character alone because he never takes the initiative to change his life after the death of his lover
Poe uses setting to bring out the theme in “The Black Cat”.The setting lies in a household with a black cat.
Edgar Allen Poe is the author of many great pieces of literature. He uses his narrators to explain situations that are going on in their life. The narrators of "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Black Cat" demonstrate their love for mans inhumanity to man and animals through horrific murders.
Edgar Allen Poe was one of the darkest poets/authors during The so-called “Age of Romance.” His stories were all about sorrow, and self-destruction. One of his more self-destructive stories was titled “The Black Cat.” That story describes an alcoholic, who murders his wife, and deals heavily with his own conscience. His conscience is represented by two cats; a black cat who represents the evil, and a black/white cat who represents the goodness in him. The narrator’s conscience is tearing him apart with the guilt from killing his wife. That conscience eventually drives him to killing one of the cats. This essay is going to explain two ways that self-destruction destroyed the narrator.
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark theme poems and short stories. When one does read one of Poe 's works the reader gets a glimpse of Poe 's reality. His uses of metaphors and dark themes have made him very popular. He writing style has Gothic themes as well as suspense and horror themes as well. His use of very dark metaphors cast a dark and gloomy presence that shows the reader the mind and world of the narrator telling the story. Edgar Allen Poe 's use of dark themes in “Black Cat” helped him convey the very dark nature of his works in which helped him shape the reality of the stories.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. “The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural world.” (Womack). Poe uses many of the American Gothic characteristics such as emotional intensity, superstition, extremes in violence, the focus on a certain object and foreshadowing lead the reader through a series of events that are horrifying and grotesque. “The Black Cat is one of the most powerful of Poe’s stories, and the horror stops short of the wavering line of disgust” (Quinn).
Poe was a man filled with compassion and whenever he lost a loved one it impacted him greatly. Examples of this are shown in his writings: The Raven and The Black Cat. In the poem The Raven there is a narrator who speaks his lost love, Lenore. This is very likely a reference to his beloved wife, Virginia. Virgina died and this was devastating for Poe, he really wants her back in life as does the narrator with Lenore. As well as the theme of loss of loved ones being shown in The Raven it is also shown in The Black Cat. In The Black Cat the narrator has many animals. He favors one of these animals, a cat named pluto, more than the others. He loses Pluto but only because of his own actions. After he cut the creature’s eye out, Pluto no longer
In Edgar Allan Poe 's "The Black Cat,” symbolism is used to show the narrator 's capacity for violence, madness, and guilt. "The Black Cat,” written by Edgar Allan Poe serves as a reminder for all of us. But In his early years, the narrator seems like any other man. He falls in love, marries that special girl, and they decide to get a few pets. Some of these pets appear to be quite unusual, but they seem happy and therefore to each his own. They end up with birds, goldfish, a dog, rabbits, and a black cat. The brief outline the narrator provides us of his wife suggests that she is kind, giving, loyal, and even heroic at the end. The narrator says she has "in a high degree, that humanity of feeling which had once been the distinguishing