More handpicked essays just for you.
Psychological conflict in literature
Psychological conflict in literature
Psychological conflict in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“And thus for one night at least, since its introduction into the house, I soundly and tranquility slept; aye, slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul.” Edgar Allen Poe, a famous writer, wrote the short Story The Black Cat. The narrator in this story is insane because of the following reasons, he kills his wife without an inch of remorse, kills the cat in cold blood, also, his acts of insanity.
In the story, the narrator has a sudden change. “I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.” The effects of his change is shown when the narrator comes him intoxicated, he imagined that the cat was avoiding him, he then grasped the cat by the neck and with a pen knife, he cut one of the cats eyes out. He writes out how horrified he was by his actions the next
…show more content…
Except, this cat had spot of white on its chest. The cat became very loved at their house by him and his wife, but he eventually grew tired and irritated with the new cat. What made the irritation grow for the cat was that it had one eye missing, just like Pluto. As the narrator and his wife were walking into the cellar, the cat nearly tripped him, which enraged him even more He grabbed the axe to kill it, but his wife stopped him from doing so, he took his arm away from her grasp and then plunged it into her head. “Goaded, by the interference, into rage more than demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain..This hideous murder accomplished.” With no remorse, he then proceeded to hid her body in the newly plastered wall. After he had discarded of her body, he then says that he had never slept better a day in his life. The narrator says, “And thus for one night at least, since its introduction into the house, I soundly and tranquility slept; aye, slept even with the burden of murder on my
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
Substance abuse plays a role in more than one of Poe's works. In the black cat alcohol drives the narrator to rip out his cats eye with with a pen and then hang the cat in guilt of what he had done. The narrator was a kind hearted man who loved animals and would do nothing to hurt them until he started to drink. He became an angrier person, always getting enraged with the people and creatures around him and his personality changed for the worse. Substance abuse changed him and drove him to be a different person than he really was. After killing the cat he felt little to no remorse for the deed he had committed and went back to his drinking and partying.Eventually his drinking led him to kill his wife, substance abuse changed him into a cold hearted man who could rationalize killing his wife and getting away with it.
The short story the “Black Cat” begins with the narrator of the story telling his side of events that have occurred throughout his life. When first being introduced to the narrator you can tell something is off with him. The narrator is originally a well-put together man he has a wife and many of different animals but has a much greater love for one of his animals named Pluto a black cat. As the life of the narrator goes on he falls into a drinking problem he cant stop drinking and when he does drink he gets violent. One night when
Insanity is a common quality among Edgar Allen Poe’s narrators, however you can’t always tell if their stories are true because they’re all insane. In William Wilson, The Black Cat and The Raven the narrators are all unreliable as they only tell the stories they believe to be true. It is up to the reader to figure out which parts of these stories are real.
He brutally describes him stabbing the cats eye, "I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket"(p5) Pluto’s perspective of his master went from loving to fear and recognizing cruelty, experiencing both a literal and physiological change of vision. From then on Pluto sees his master differently, and sees the world differently as well in result of his now one eye. Additionally, the reader's eyes for his cat are sharpened and changed at this moment as well. The madness in the Black Cat then escalates when the narrator's hatred for Pluto consumed him, and he hangs him outside the garden.Mysteriously, when coming home drunk a few weeks after the murder of his cat, a black cat similar to Pluto appears in front of the narrator, missing an eye as well but has white fur on its stomach unlike Pluto. He brings the cat home in hope it will replace the cat he now misses and remorses for killing. Soon his liking for his cat turned to bitterness and hatred. The madness inside of him decreased with the death of Pluto, and returned with
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.
The presence of the two cats in the tale allows the narrator to see himself for who he truly is. In the beginning the narrator explains that his “tenderness of heart made him the jest of his companions”. (251) He also speaks of his love for animals that has remained with him from childhood into manhood. However, Poe contradicts this description of the narrator when he seems to become annoyed with the cat that he claims to love so much. While under the influence of alcohol the narrator is “fancied that the cat avoided his presence”(250) and as a result decides to brutally attack the cat. This black cat symbolizes the cruelty received by slaves from whites. The narrator not only “deliberately cuts one of the cats eyes from the sockets” (250) but he also goes on to hang the cat. Once the narrator successfully hangs the cat the tale begins to take a very dark and gothic-like turn. The racism and guilt of the narrator continues to haunt him once he has killed the black cat. Th...
As the narrator changes in behavior, he commits murder and becomes consumed in guilt. There are many instances where the narrator’s guilt takes over his personality. As alcohol takes over the narrator’s life and changes his behavior, he cuts out the eye of Pluto. Reminded of his cruelty by the cat’s eye, the narrator tries to free himself from the guilt and kills the cat by hanging it. After committing the murder, he doesn’t seem to realize the amount of guilt he has, insisting that he is not concerned with what he commits. After the crime, it seems as if the narrator’s subconscious is preventing him from making good choices. The narrator's guilt is subsided by the appearance of a new cat. After he brings the new cat home, he starts to resent
“Black Cat” is about a narrator and his tribulations with animals, cats in particular with this work. The short story starts out with the narrator telling
Although one particular pet catches the majority of the young man’s attention, an all-black cat named Pluto. With the decreasing of the man’s control toward the alcohol, he eventually submits into the illusions causing him to lash out in violent rages towards his animals and even his wife. An important scene that depicts this concept of illusions would be when the man’s house had caught up in flames and when the house had been extinguished the only part of the house that was left perfectly intact had a remarkable image of a cat with a rope around its neck. The young man was left curious and terrified as to if this were a coincidence or if there was a deeper meaning to this situation. It is let to be determined if it is possible that the young man is being deceived by his own mind throughout the entire short story.
firstly, we can say that he had a good childhood. he loved his pets. but slowly as he grew old, may be because of some unfortunate events of failures, he started getting a feeling of emptiness in him and so he turned towards alcohol to fill this emptiness or to forget about all the bad things. the narrator also calls it a devil's act(feind intemperance). it was this alcohol that made him abuse his pets and slowly his wife.but when his own cat, who use to once love him, ignored him and scratched him in self defence he lost his mind. "The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame". by saying this he is discribing how he wasnt thinking properly. he had lost his rational thinking.he's lost himself(soul take its flight from his body)and no longer is in control of himself. and the alcohol that was running through him body was taking control of his body. this imagery explains perfectly what was going throught his mind at that moment. the readers can actually feel the insanity going on his mind. this is not something that a third person would have been able to discribe or experience and thus even the readers wouldnt have been able to understand his insane state of mind. so the 1st person narration plays an important role in explaning this plot of the story.
Their friendship last years, until his acquired drunkenness that grew to violence. His anger and violence never affected his dear cat until one light coming home immensely intoxicated. He became so angry with it that he used a knife to cut out one of it’s eyes from the socket. Soon after this event had happened, he longed
...at the hands of his master. The mutilation of its eye, hanging it to death from a tree and killing his wife, which had shown the cat love. There are two interpretations you can take away from this story, the logic of guilt or supernatural fantasy. Which conclusion will you take?
In "The Black Cat," the author, Edgar Allan Poe, uses a first person narrator who is portrayed as a maniac. Instead of having a loving life with his wife and pets, the narrator has a cynical attitude towards them due to his mental instability as well as the consumption of alcohol. The narrator is an alcoholic who takes out his own insecurities on his family. It can be very unfortunate and in some cases even disastrous to be mentally unstable. Things may take a turn for the worst when alcohol is involved, not only in the narrator's case, but in many other cases as well. Alcohol has numerous affects on people, some people may have positive affects while others, like the narrator in "The Black Cat," may have negative affects like causing physical and mental abuse to those he loved. The combination of the narrator's mental instability along with the consumption of alcohol caused the narrator to lose control of his mind as well as his actions leading him to the brink of insanity. Though the narrator is describing his story in hopes that the reader feels sympathy towards him, he tries to draw the attention to his abuse of alcohol to demonstrate the negative affects that it can take on your life as well as destroy it in the end.
No matter which critical interpretation is used, it is evident that Poe's "The Black Cat" is a unique story that relies on key aspects, such as graphic violence and sensational imagery, to heighten the reader's perception toward the limits and depths of the human mind.