The Black Cat Essay Example for Free

The Black Cat EssayShort Story Analysis The Black Cat The Black Cat by Edgar Alan Poe is a short stage told in a first person narrative, from the point of view of an incarcerated piper. There are several ways to interpret this story the endorser merchant ship as well as gain insight on the tellers state of mind. What I am going to talk ab bulge today is how the narrator uses a contend of symbolism and descriptive elements in his story, and in turn, how the reader entrust interpret the narrator as a person. A few characteristics that will be suck uped are death, psychosis/state of mind of the narrator, and alcoholism.The narrator admits an alcohol dependency right from the start. One night, returning home , much intoxi pated, from one of my haunts about town(2). This gives the reader the photo that it is in the narrators normal character to be under the influence. The narrator used alcohol as his reasoning for cutting the black hombres eye out. He then drinks away hi s guilt and sins with alcohol, I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed (3).From these statements, the reader can assume that the narrator is an alcoholic and uses that to blur the reality of his decisions. Madness is defined as the state of being mentally ill or super foolish behavior. In this story it is apparent that the narrator could very well be mentally unstable. He immediately expressed his fondness for animals, he legal opinion of animals as a principal sources of pleasure (2). He by and by gets pleasure from abusing one of his animals, the black cat, by cutting the cats eye out with a knife.All because he felt the cat was avoiding him. He later hangs the cat, and then constantly feels haunted by his acts. In a way, the narrator seems enticed by his evil actions. Evil thoughts became my sole intimates-the darkest and most evil of thoughts (5). The narrators last act of evil is the murder of his wife, when he hits her in the head with a n axe. He then immediately thinks of ways to cover up the murder. He talks about cutting his wife up into pieces, further later decides that he will hide her body in the brick wall in the cellar of their home.From this the reader has gone from believing the narrator is just some troubled alcoholic, to believing the narrator is suffering some serious psychosis. There are many faces of death in this story. The first starts with the abuse of the black cat. The narrator comes home drunk and believes the cat is being disobedient so he cuts the cats eye out. Later, when his guilt builds up and he can no longer take it, the narrator hangs the cat. He becomes paranoid and believes the cat is haunting him from the grave. Although I thus readily accounted to my reason, if not altogether to my conscience, for the startling fact just detailed, it did not the less depart to make a deep impression upon my fancyamong the vile haunts which I now habitually frequented (4). The next face of death i s the cruel and unexpected murder of the narrators wife. It becomes apparent that the narrator has a disturbing fascination when carrying out the acts of murder. These actions tie into the narrators mental stability.It is one thing to ache thoughts of harming ones self or others, but it is another thing when those thoughts are acted upon. My happiness was supreme The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little (6). From this the reader can assume that the narrator is a mentally unstable alcoholic murderer. The three main descriptive characteristics that I wanted to highlight about the narrator and the story of The Black Cat are alcoholism, psychosis, and death. With these three elements the reader can pass judgment on the narrator and create an boilersuit opinion of him as a person.The reader can become first enticed by the story with the narrator talking about his love for animals and then later his cruelty towards them. Next the reader begins to wonder if the narrator is imagin ing these things, Upon its headsat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman (7). Finally the reader can confidently asses their overall impression of the narrator. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. unless to-morrow I die and to-day I would unburden my soul (1).