The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe.

               The Black Cat 

     'The Black Cat' is a short story written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It was published in the August 19, 1843 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. He was an American writer, poet, author, editor, and literary critic. This tale represents mystery and the macabre. Poe employs themes of sanity vs insanity, superstition, horror, dangers of alcoholism. 

Question: 1 How does Poe create a sense of suspense and horror in the story? ( Themes, symbols, etc.) 

Answer : 

                

            In the story, Poe creates some suspense and horror by Black cat, murder and death. The unnamed narrator and his wife are animal lovers and at their home, many animals are there such as birds, rabbits, goldfish, a fine dog, a small monkey and a cat. The large and beautiful animal, entirely black and Pluto was the cat's name. 

      

           Pluto was his favourite animal, day by day Pluto stayed ahead of him. He was irritated and wrath from the black cat and one day he decided to kill him. One of the cat's eyes was blinded by his beating. The cat was hung on a tree and afterwards, due to some problems his home was burning and he saw the black cat in the home, it was also burning. 

        Now he feels bliss by killing the black cat. One day he went to a tavern and he saw a cat there as large as his Pluto. He gets emotional for a moment when he sees it. One eye of that cat also burst he was shocked.  This cat followed him to the cellar. He was again furious with the cat and he decided to kill him. One day he was going to kill the cat with an axe but his wife intervened and she died. His wife hides in the wall. 

         After many days police came there and investigated his cellar they got nothing. But at the end suddenly, the sound of a cat comes from the wall, and the narrator is caught red-handed. 

    

        In such a manner, Poe creates suspense and makes the story more terrible. In the story, some symbols such as the black cat, and the wife and some themes such as justice and truth, superstition, murder and death, remorse, etc. Represent the suspense and gist of the story.

Question: 2 Why do you think the narrator's descent into madness occurs? 

Answer : 

          In 'The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator's descent into madness because of his contributions to the alcohol, guilt, and abuse and considering the situation, he increases his drinking of alcohol. Secondly, he is furious with the black cat and he already killed a cat once though it comes again and he was wrath from the cat again. He used to remorse for killing the cat, but again he tried to kill him. Due to all this suffering, he descends into insanity or madness. 

Question : 3 What role does alcohol play in the narrator's actions and decisions? 

Answer : 

           In the story, when the narrator is put in such situations, he wants to drink alcohol. The narrator goes to the tavern and drinks gin. Alcohol makes the narrator more aggressive and descent into insanity.  

Thank you!