Alcoholism can completely eradicate the human sense of right or wrong. ‘The Black Cat’ is a story of loss and murder that is focused on the nameless narrator and the terrible thing he does when intoxicated. The story is written by Edgar Allen Poe. How would it be to live the life of a man who let anger come over him and later on kills his cat Pluto, and his wife. This story is about the narrator’s flashbacks on the events that put him into jail and on his way to death.
Poe is often known for his dark, sometimes twisted short stories and poems. “The Masque of the Red Death” is no exception. In this short story, Poe creates and eerie and ominous mood by using a wide variety of literary techniques including imagery, diction, and syntax. Poe’s use of imagery contributes to the dark and mysterious mood of the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death.” In the first paragraph, a sense of darkness is conveyed in the sentence, “There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers.”
In the gruesome short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe a nameless narrator tells his story of his drunken and moody life before he gets hung the next day. The intoxicated narrator kills his favorite cat, Pluto and his wife with an axe. Soon enough, the narrator gets caught and there he ends up, in jail. Although, most readers of “The Black Cat” have argued the narrators insanity, more evidence have shown that he is just a moody alcoholic with a lousy temper.
This story of death works out, because Edgar Allen Poe gives good use to author’s craft. Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery, symbolism, and setting to create an effective story. In the “Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses description to give imagery.
Edgar Allan Poe addresses the dark and gruesome side of human nature in his writing “The Black Cat”, which during that time and even now are perceived as radical ideas. This dark human nature is displayed in Poe’s writing as the narrator recalls the happenings of a most erratic event. The narrator, a pet lover with a sweet disposition, in this story succumbs to the most challenging aspects of human nature including that of addiction, anger, and perverseness. To the Christian believer, human’s sinful flesh leads people to do wrong because that is their natural tendency.
He continues to describe the “Red Death,” stating that there were “Sharp pains and dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores,” (Poe 3). By describing the disease so vividly, Poe is giving the reader a visual image to magnify the dreaminess of the story. He does this again when describing the attendees of the Masquerade. He describes them, saying, “There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions.
Poe uses figurative language to create an association with two thoughts to influence the reader and produce a connection. “The Masque of the Red Death” describes the red death as if it were a “thief in the night.” “ And now was acknowledgment the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night”(61). The phrase “thief in the night” refers to an unseen or unexpected act without it being seen.
But one of Poe’s stories, The Masque of the Red Death (1842), relies heavily on themes of death, pestilence, human nature, and religion. Through these themes and symbolism, Poe explores the darker side of humanity and the meaning behind life. “The Masque of the Red Death” is a story about Prince Prospero and his kingdom that
“The Masque of the Red Death” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe that is portrayed through limited omniscient narration. This is a narrator who can identify everything throughout the story and recognize how a character’s thought process works. Poe presents the story in an elegant manner and his writing style is composed and dignified. The tone that is used throughout the story gives us a medieval perception. However, Poe approaches the reader by representing the actions, words, and other aspects of a character without including their cognition.
Edgar Allen Poe was very afraid of people who were mentally insane but didn’t know. Those are one of the most dangerous people who can live depending on how a person is. In many Edgar Allen Poe poems, he was a very dark story writer with many famous poems such as “The Raven”, “The Black Cat”, “Annabel Lee”, “Eldorado”, “Tamerlane”, etc. He was a very compelling author. Many people didn’t really credit his work until several years after his sad death.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” vs. “The Black Cat” “I was never insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.” This quote from Edgar Allan Poe portrays the plot in both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” precisely. Both of these tales bring you into the mind of two fascinating narrators. These ghastly short stories written by Poe in the 1840’s are quite different, but they share striking similarities. “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” are similar in several ways.
This essay will be focusing on the world where his story “The Black Cat” takes place. This world of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” is unnatural, with heavy themes of violence. Characters in this world behave unnaturally with violence and cruelty, and murder is commonplace. “The Black Cat”" starts off a man who loves his black cat Pluto. Though he loves Pluto he begin starts to have outbursts due to alcoholism.
Edgar Allan Poe, one of history’s most terrifying and demented authors, is famous for his multitude of stories perfectly crafted to haunt readers for years after they finish reading the final words. To achieve this, Poe uses many suspense techniques such as imagery, vocabulary, psychological insights and unreliable narrators to heighten the power of his tales and truly chill readers to the bone. His use of these tactics is no more apparent than in his most morbid and haunting tale, “The Masque Of Red The Death”. In this story, Poe uses three main literary devices: Imagery, symbolism and themes. Poe’s use of imagery is something that makes this tale captivate the audience and truly resonate within readers’ minds.
In the story, the narrator attacks and wounds his cat while he is extremely drunk. He is overcome with the ‘fiery demon of alcohol’, much like Poe became before he died. In short, Poe’s life was rather terrible, and it’s apparent that these dark events in his life stimulated his unique and creepy style of writing, which is what he’s famous
The Insanity of “The Black Cat” Edgar Allan Poe left the ending of most of his stories enigmatic and therefore, open to controversial interpretations. Many debate whether the endings are the result of insanity or of haunting. It is evident that “The Black Cat” ending is caused by insanity, based on multiple re-occurrences that happen to the narrator. Many situations from the story support this claim.