The Black Cat

Black Cat is one of the famous murder tales and written by Edgar
Allen Poe in 1843.In this story,the narrator begins his confession in
retrospect,at a time when he was considered to be a perfectly
normal person,know for his docility and his humane considerations
os animals and people.His parents indulged his fondness for animals
and he was allowed to have many different kinds of
pets.Furthermore,he was very fortune to marry a woman who was
also fond of animals.Among the other animals that they possessed
was a black cat named Pluto.The rest of the story,we can clearly see
some important things like how characters actions towards
events,these events result in crime and the black cat is symbolic and
has some gothic features.

In this short story, The black cat the main character,other than
the two cats prominently featured in Poes story,is unnamed
narrator.The narrator,who is telling the story from first person point
of view,describes himself as docile,humane and a lover of pets.The
narrator says that he was an extremely sensitive boy,so passive that
his schoolmates teased him.His parents provided him with a variety
of household pets.But this character ends up doing the mos
unimaginable things he abuses,harms and kills his wife.

Because of the character attitudes,there is crime is this

story.Under the influence of alcohol,he verbally and physically
abused both his wife and his pets; in tme even Pluto was not spared
the effects of his drinken rages and began to avoid his master.This
irritated the narrator.One night after a drinking bout,he seized the
cat by the throat and cut one of Plutos eyes from its socket.
 There are a lot of symbolism in this story.One of the most robust
motifs running throughout the stories of Poes the utilizatiionof the
unreliable narrator.The unnamed narrator of The black cat gives a
horrific account.Secondly,the movement from obssession toward
madness takes a particularly sadistic turn in The black cat when the
narrator takes a penknife to the cat leaves it with only one eye.Eyes
are symbol that returns to again and again in various forms of
expression in his stories.Lastly;the motif of double that Poe engages
in The black catis a bit more idiosyncrotic than his usual
employment as here t is an animal that gets a double.After finally
killing of his pet Pluto,the narrator is stunned by arrival of a near-
duplicate of the pet.

Besides all these things,these are also gothic elements in this

story.Gothic literatre has several distinguish features.It often
focuses on the dark,evil side of human natre.It asserts that
everyone has a dark side and in this story,we find the characters
giving in to that dark side and doing awful things.If we look at the
story,the narrator grew up a kind,loving and amiable man but the
story takes a gothic twist because of alcoholism,his personality
changes.He becomes violent,ill-tempered and abuses his wife and
pets.The narrator has given into his darker side and it leads to the
death of his wife.

In the end,in this story an unreliable first-person narrator relates

how alcohol and selfdeception led him to kill his pets and murder his
wife.When an outsider looks at the events of the story,it is obvious
that the narrator is untrustworthy.The alcoholism,which affects the
narrator for much of his adult life can be seen as the root of his
problems.The alcoholism leads to other problems in his life.

MERVE KESEN / ARZU ALKAYA