Like many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, The Black Cat ventures into the abnormal psychology in which the narrator is completely insane. The mysterious man narrating is an interesting character, one who contradicts himself ... and intemperate murderer and abuser. This man is subject to uncontrollable, impulsive behavior. For example, the narrator comes home one night "much intoxicated" and cuts his black cat's eye out, merely because the animal avoided him. During this attack on his pet, he says that his "original soul seemed, at once, to take its ... is one of the primitive impulses of the h...

• Word Count: 671
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... The Black Cat, there is symbolism weaved throughout the story. At the beginning of the story there is a brief history told about the narrator's life and his strong affection for animals. The story then moves to present day and the narrator goes on to tell the audience about his cat Zeus and his growing animosity toward the cat. As ... an ax to the skull, and dies. The narrator then buries his wife in the wall of the basement, and is found out by the police. The cat is buried in the wall with his wife, and "meows" while the police are there. Throughout the story it is unclear whether the ...

• Word Count: 394
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye" (Poe 139). In "The Black Cat" the narrator obsesses over his black cat named Pluto. Of all his other pets, this was his favorite pet and playmate. He spent most of his time with this ... and legs, and stuck all of his body parts under the floorboards in the bedroom. Likewise, in "The Black Cat" the narrator not only kills Pluto, but he also murders his wife. Frustrated from being violent with his cat while in a drunken state, the narrator wraps a rope around Pluto's neck and hangs it from a tree ... no more! I admit ...

• Word Count: 1166
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... ˜The Fall of the House of Usher' is the best horror story that they have read for a long time ". Another critic says, " ˜The Black Cat' is perfect eerie and dark. The once friendly and loving narrator describes his decline into a wretched and hurtful human being, all due to alcohol abuse. " Unlike ... is a great example of how an author such as Poe gets straight to the point. " Unlike "The Fall of the House of Usher " "The Black Cat " is written from the perspective of the narrator. Telling the story from the first person point of view, intensifies the effect of moral, shock and horro...

• Word Count: 948
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... if it was an unnatural part of life. This theme of hardships and death is carried throughout Poe's writings. Some of the most striking similarities can be found between "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", two short stories that divulge the inner workings of a perverse mind. First, The plot of these stories is similar in many ways. "The ... Black Cat" is Poe's second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt (the first being "The Tell-Tale Heart"); however, this story does not deal with premeditated murder. The reader is told ... tells a personal account, the overall im...

• Word Count: 932
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Rip Van Winkle". Examples of the tenets evil, imagination, and exotic are of ten used in "The Black Cat", "Dr. Heidegger"s Experiment", and "Young Goodman Brown". "Evil" is often used in "The Black Cat", and in "Young Goodman Brown". The tenet of evil is the belief that evil is an important part ... evil there is grotesque, which is the fascination with extreme evil, which is often expressed in particularly gruesome or horrifying manner. I believe "The Black cat" is a great example of evil and grotesque because it deals with the narrator killing, like when he killed his wife or his cats, ...

• Word Count: 750
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... doesn't stop at his need to break the anima out of our subconscious, but also to emanate the monsters that we try to hide. In "The Black Cat," Poe shows how our vices can overtake our lives and force us to do unthinkable things. These unthinkable things create the metaphorical "monsters in our closets ... drinks far too much. He takes a fancy to a cat that him and his wife own, but eventually grows tired and annoyed of how the cat acts and decides to hang it from a tree one day. The next day, the cat is gone and there is a new cat that resembles the cat that he had just killed with a rop...

• Word Count: 1058
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... in his stories and poems. The common thread is that his narrators appear to be insane. This is exhibited in "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Tell Tale Heart", and "The Black Cat." Montressor, the narrator of "The Cask of Amontillado," exhibits insanity. At the beginning of the story, Montressor speaks with intense anger and remorse. The reader is then told that the ... beat that no one else hears. The anonymous narrator of "The Tell Tale Heart" is without a doubt insane. The third narrator that exhibits insanity is the anonymous narrator of "The Black Cat." The author begins the story st...

• Word Count: 485
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... well, meaning the works should leave an impression and have a certain tone. The works that I decided to attribute to this composition are, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Black Cat, Eleonora, The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven in which Poe speaks of in his composition, and Alone. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar uses the step by ... the author is doing for Mr. Valdemar because it is impressive that he is speaking with Mr. Valdemar while in a state of deep sleep and even in death. In the Black Cat there are steps as well, though they are not as clear as the buildup in t...

• Word Count: 1070
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... the human mind are concerned, Poe puts to paper what many cannot even imagine. This is especially evident in his short stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart- and "The Black Cat- in which the common themes are murder, insanity, and darkness. We all wonder what goes on in the mind of a person driven so far over the brink of human sanity ... this very line of thinking that Poe forces one to analyze in his short stories filled with murder, insanity, and darkness. A common theme in "The Tell-Tale Heart- and "The Black Cat- is the narrator being a seemingly normal and perfectly sane person to ...

• Word Count: 1106
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School