The narrator’s wife confronts him with this idea in the following lines: “.my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise” (p.1, l.27f). The black cats living with the narrator appear to be supernatural. Thrill, suspense and horror are often evoked by gothic elements.
This seminar paper aims to answer the question: How does Edgar Allan Poe manage to convey a horrific atmosphere and make the tale more vivid in “The Black Cat”? In order to convey the horrific atmosphere of suspense and horror and make the story more alive, Edgar Allan Poe skilfully uses gothic elements and employs numerous stylistic devices in text, syntax, lexis, punctuation and sound.ĭiscussing the style of this short story, Poe vividly presents elements of the supernatural, the evil side of human nature and madness, which place “The Black Cat” in the gothic genre.
Shortly after taking it home, the initial fondness develops into an increasing dislike and even hatred towards the animal, which prompts him commit more horrible crimes. Having lost his house due to a fire, he finds comfort in a new black cat. He struggles with alcoholism and cuts out an eye of the cat with fiendish pleasure and hangs it to the limb of the tree. The personality of the narrator changes from human to perverse after taking a black cat home. The short story “The Black Cat” remains one of his most mystifying and horrifying tales as the narrator confesses and recounts macabre past events prior to his imminent execution. The motives of mystery, death and macabre can be found in several of is well-known masterpieces, such as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Black Cat”.
Due to his imaginative storytelling and mysterious and horrific tales, he is considered as the inventor of the modern detective fiction. Poe was an American poet, short story writer, editor and critic whose works have influenced the American Romantic Movement. This paper analyses the short story The Black Cat, written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in 1845.
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