The Black Cat Symbolism Essay

It seems that he almost got away with it, but the black cat appeared with what seemed as a corpse of his dead wife. Black cats are usually a symbol of good or bad luck. The character did not know that since at first he was having the best time with both cats he had. But then he felts a sudden change in his personality and believed it was all because of the cat. He felt as if he was under a curse from the black cat and was stuck under it while the cat still roamed around his house.

The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse" (Connell). The meaning of the quote is to show that Rainsford uses his brain to interpret the meaning of General Zaroff's actions. Instead of believing that Rainsford had beat the general, he thought about the general's behavior and realized that the general was playing with Rainsford. Both main characters use their brains to overcome being hunted

The narrator, in a drunken stupor, took the black cats’ eye out, then afterwards, after feeling some remorse at least, decided to hang the cat because he loved it. The narrator got another cat after this and became even more insane in the way he felt about this black cat.

James Gargano believes the black cat of Poe’s short story is a direct analogue to the narrator, with inclinations for both good and evil. However, Jungian psychology reveals the cat as a function of the narrator’s anima. Jung argues that instinct, like a cat, commands a wider range of perceptions because it relies on irrational impulses. As the cat grows intolerable, Jung argues that the narrator’s subconscious begins to express itself through abusive acts toward the wife and cat in order to gain control over his anima. The narrator tries to remove his anima through the hanging the cat; however, failure is shown in the cat’s reappearance.

The relationship between the black cat and The Tale-tell Heart, there is definitely similarities with these short stories because both narrators claim their sanity and then contradicts themselves by acting unusual and bizarre.The Tale-Tell Heart seems to focus more on his sanity and the “Evil eye”. Both the Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat have the theme of insanity, most of his stories are also told in first person The Tell Tale Heart is about a man being disturbed by an eye, the eye of the old man is harmless but drives the narrator mad and the eye seems to be a problem. Then the old man’s body is hidden within the house and hidden from police and eventually the narrator claims insanity with the heart beating faster and louder.

The narrator in ‘The Black Cat’ seems to act like two people at once . The narrator starts his story by trying to tell his readers he is not crazy. He says, “Yet, mad am I not -- and very surely do I not dream (“The Black Cat”).” This is a good example of unreliable narrator, because only crazy people try really hard to make others believe they are not crazy. The narrator does not help his case when he admits to hurting the cat for fun. Also, when reading “ The Black Cat”, Poe will not keep the reader up-to-date with the natural world.

Both of the narrators were so arrogant, that they both caused the downfall of their character. The narrator in The Black Cat would have gotten away scott-free, but he wanted to brag on his wall building skills so while he was tooting his own horn, he accidentally turned himself in by causing the wall to fall, and his dead wife to fall out. The narrator in The Tell Tale Heart also would have gotten away scott-free if wasn’t so arrogant and wanted to also show off his great “burying a corpse skills”. But alas, his conscience ended up getting the better of him and he turned himself in. Both stories also involve the senseless murder of a one eyed being, whether it be a cat or a human.

All that is left of the cat were the fleas which must be destroyed. From a literal standpoint, the household cat died from fleas and then the family buries the cat. Then finally burns the cat’s box to get rid of the fleas. Obviously, this is not what Williams means at all by this poem. The fleas, what’s left of the cat, remind us that our struggles and pains are in large part how we are thought of by others.

Here the use of “night” is the first in the play and it sets the stage for the chaos that nighttime and the word “night” will come to represent. The character alone that says the word symbolizes the chaos connotated with the word because the Witches are women of chaos and evil themselves. The example of the shipman being tormented at night foreshadows Macbeth’s future lack of the ability to sleep due to the guilt and evil that haunt him. Like the shipman, Macbeth will live a life cursed by the night. Also like the shipman, Macbeth has no connection before the Witches make his life chaotic by influencing his decision to murder Duncan at night.

Frustrated by this act, the man attempted to seize the old black cat but was responded with a wound in his hand instead. Enragement and fury occupied his darkened mind, leading him to cut one of the cat’s eyes. The following morning, the sober man deeply regretted his decisions yet it didn’t stop him from drinking. It was clear to the audience that their relationship had now changed as the cat continued to avoid the man. This only brought irritation upon him, leading to the hanging of the cat from a tree.