“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe is narrated by a man dealing with an ill temper and alcoholism. The narrator who was once “noted for his docility and humanity” and cared for his pets transforms into a monster who kills his favorite cat, Pluto, his wife and another black cat that resembles Pluto. He tries to compromise his “fiendish” actions and hides his wife’s corpse, but at the end, his wife’s body is found in the walls while the black cat that resembled Pluto was sitting on top of the corpse buried together (3). Although “The Black Cat” centers around a series of terrific events caused by the unknown narrator, an examination of the insanity of the narrator shown in the first paragraph of the story raises the question of the reliability of story and its ambiguity.
Poe uses rhetorical devices such as paradox, diction, and irony to set the tone of the story while suggesting the instability of the narrator.
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This peculiar juxtaposition of “wild” and “homely” in the first line of the story triggers the reader’s curiosity of what “wild” and “homely” narration would be. This paradoxical phrase also foreshadows the “wild” behaviors of the narrator shown at his “home” as a murderer of his wife and cat. Paradox, “a statement that appears to be self-contradictory but may include a latent truth”, appears again when the narrator says “I was committing a sin…even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God” (6). By referring God as “Most Merciful” and “Most Terrible,” narrator demonstrates the unstable mind of his own with dealing with the sin that he has committed. These phrases create an ambiguous tone of the story which contributes to the way readers perceive the narrator and his behaviors as unusual and
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
His mix of sound devices such rhyme and alliteration, makes his story more horrific and on the corner of your seat good. Likewise, he has a idiosyncratic style of writing which applies to ethos and also logos. He uses hyphens to indicate agitation or fear in his narrator.Poe has a brilliant way of taking gothic tales of mystery and terror and mixing them with variations of a romantic tale by shifting emphasis from surface suspense and plot pattern to his symbolic play in language and various meanings of words. Devices of description, from demographia to triplets adjectival and adverbial, and conclude that Poe is a highly descriptive writer. Poe employs all of the types classified by Lanham. Lanham calls techniques of argument also abound; Poe is, after all, an eminently rhetorical writer not only in his literary criticism, where we would expect attempts at persuasion, but in his fiction as well.” (Zimmerman 8) Poe uses many of these deliberately as devices of comedy often verbal comedy: antisthecon, barbarism, bomphiologia, epenthesis, metathesis, prosonomasia, and puns.Poe uses comedy as a distraction from the petrifying atmosphere.The narrator also uses repetition, emphasizing his actions and building suspense. Using this creates the suspense and the theme of the
Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, "The Raven" starts off in a dark setting with an apartment on a "bleak December" night. The reader meets an agonized man sifting through his books while mourning over the premature death of a woman named Lenore. When the character is introduced to the raven he asks about Lenore and the chance in afterlife in which the bird replies “nevermore” which confirms his worst fears. This piece by Edgar Allen Poe is unparalleled; his poem’s theme is not predictable, it leads to a bitter negative ending and is surrounded by pain. To set this tone, Poe uses devices such as the repetition of "nevermore" to emphasize the meaning of the word to the overall theme; he also sets a dramatic tone that shows the character going from weary
There are songs that are happy, sad, and just plain silly. For example, Smelly Cat sung by phoebe Buffary on the television show Friends. Smelly cat is funny to be because it is simple yet silly. She sings about a cat that is smelly, but the cat can’t help that it is smelly. This is funny to me because she sings very bad and the lyrics don’t make sense.
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.
Poe, Edgar A. “The Black Cat.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed.
Furthermore, Poe’s plot development added much of the effect of shocking insanity to “The Black Cat.” To dream up such an intricate plot of perverseness, alcoholism, murders, fire, revival, and punishment is quite amazing. This story has almost any plot element you can imagine a horror story containing. Who could have guessed, at the beginning of the story, that narrator had killed his wife? The course of events in “The Black Cat’s” plot is shockingly insane by itself! Moreover, the words in “The Black Cat” were precisely chosen to contribute to Poe’s effect of shocking insanity. As the narrator pens these he creates a splendidly morbid picture of the plot. Perfectly selected, sometimes rare, and often dark, his words create just the atmosphere that he desired in the story.
Gargano, James W. “’The Black Cat’: Perverseness Reconsidered.” Twentieth Century Interpretations of Poe’s Tales. Ed. William L. Howarth. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1971. 87-94. Print.
...is wife and hides her body he does not own up to his actions but instead blames the cat as the one “which had been the cause of so much wretchedness”. (254)
One of the other literary devices that Poe focuses on is personification. Personification is used to give a life like description of an object. Personification is one of the literary devices that bring his writings to life. For instance, “…weighty rod of brass, and the whole hissed as it swung through the air.” (The Pit and the Pendulum) is a great example. Anadiplosis, bomphiologia, chronographia and enargia greatly influence Poe’s writing style. Poe uses these and many other types of literary devices to bring his writing to life. Using the imagination he was able to create theses works of true art. Poe made his stories so eloquent that you had to use your mind to read them, which made them popular in America. Even today, scholars still read his work and try to understand the mind of Poe. (Poe)
Analysis of the Role First Person Narration Plays in Edgar Allen Poe's Poem The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe is one of America’s most celebrated classical authors, known for his unique dealings within the horror genre. Poe was a master at utilizing literary devices such as point of view and setting to enhance the mood and plot of his stories leading to his widespread appeal that remains intact to this day. His mastery of aforementioned devices is evident in two of his shorter works “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.
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).
One poetic device is descriptive language; it creates a fascinating story, and it is also uncircumscribed as the limit is how descriptive the author wants it to be. Since both Shakespeare and Poe use descriptive language, they both convey specific moods with their works. However, they both translate contrasting moods and messages, and they make the readers feel the essence of the story in different ways. “Ah,
Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale, "The Black Cat," is a disturbing story that delves into the contrasts between reality and fantasy, insanity and logic, and life and death. To decipher one distinct meaning presented in this story undermines the brilliance of Poe's writing. Multiple meanings can be derived from "The Black Cat," which lends itself perfectly to many approaches of critical interpretation.