Symbolism In The Black Cat

Decent Essays
Writers utilize symbols in order to represent an idea or subject. The use of symbols is a way to communicate a deeper meaning and to employ an object to point to a different reality. The short story, “The Black Cat,” was written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1845. Poe tells a story of guilt, bad judgement, and mental deterioration. His short story is rich with countless different symbols representing these subjects. The narrator’s life is excellent up until the point where alcohol comes into his life. Then, he starts to abuse his animals and he mentally fades into insanity. Pluto represents the narrator’s life before he went crazy and his depraved judgment. The fire represents the narrator’s mental deterioration. The second cat represents the narrator’s …show more content…
The cat represents the narrator’s love and care for animals and how he was as a young boy and early in his marriage. The narrator “alone fed him, and he attended [him] wherever [he] went about the house. It was even with difficulty that [he] could prevent him from following [him] through the streets” (Poe 1). When the narrator was young, he loved and cared for animals. His cat, Pluto, whom he and his wife love dearly, is like their child. The cat also loved him. All the narrator wants to achieve is to be near the cat, to cuddle it, and to care for it. Pluto is the representation of love in the narrator’s life. The cat also represents the narrator’s bad judgement as a result of his alcoholism. The narrator, “returning home, much intoxicated, from one of [his] haunts about town… [He] seized him… [He] knew [himself] no longer… and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” (Poe 2). Pluto is a physical embodiment of the narrator’s alcohol inflicted judgment. The narrator attacks Pluto just because of the fact he is irritated by him. Instead of thinking his actions through and realizing he loves the cat, he let all judgment fly out the window. With alcohol in his system, the narrator can’t think straight resulting in a catastrophic outcome for Pluto. Pluto’s mangled body is a representation of the narrator’s lack of judgment. Throughout the short story, “The Black Cat,” Poe …show more content…
The fire is a symbol of renewal and cleansing. Poe writes, “The destruction was complete. My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned myself thenceforward to despair” (Poe 3). Right after the narrator kills Pluto, his house catches on fire. The fire is symbolic in that the narrator has no choice but to pick up and move, leaving his house and what he did to his cat behind. He is cleansed from his actions and does not begin to feel the effects of his actions until he acquires the second cat. The fire, however, is also a symbol of the narrator’s mental deterioration. The narrator “approached and saw, as if graven in bas relief upon the white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat” (Poe 3). The aftermath of the fire is when the narrator first starts to notice signs of his insanity. He begins to envision the cat and believes Pluto is haunting him and out to get him. The fire is what sent the narrator over the edge into madness. Fire in “The Black Cat” symbolizes both renewal and mental

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Black Cat Annotated

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The significance of the narrator’s change of disposition from docile and tender to “…more moody, more irritable and regardless of the feelings of others” is the result of alcohol. In the beginning of the story, the main character is a loving and sweet person who loves animals. On the first page, it said, “Pluto—this was the cat’s name—was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.”…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This shows an important setting in “The Black Cat” while also setting a mood of fear. The narrator in “The Black Cat” also uses feeling over reason while making choices. This causes him to make many bad decisions. “Because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense; - hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin - a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul” (Poe 2). This crazy act shows the reader just how insane the narrator is.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poe uses symbols to create this much deeper meaning in his stories which ultimately makes them meaningful. In "The Black Cat", the cat itself is a symbol. It can be seen as a symbol of the main character 's degradation of his mind. The main character first had a "tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make" friends with his animals (The Black Cat). One can see here how in the beginning a well-tempered man turns into a violent soul.…

    • 1697 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Insanity In The Black Cat

    • 226 Words
    • 1 Pages

    When the narrator in the Black Cat begins his story, he insists upon his sanity, and clarifies to the reader that the sole purpose of the narration is to unburden his soul. As he continues, it becomes evident that his aim is instead focused upon reliving and understanding the murders he committed. Throughout the narrative, the man contextualizes his guilt by denying the agency of his thoughts while claiming ownership of his actions. To begin his story, the man insists, “…mad I am not – and very surely do I not dream” (Poe, 1). In saying this, he acknowledges the insanity of which his story embodies, but holds that they are mere events governed by fact while insisting upon his own standard state of mind.…

    • 226 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The storyteller shows up at first to love the two his better half and his pets, yet before the finish of the story his affection has swung to disregard, demonstrate hatred for, and even contempt, especially for Pluto and his successor. In spite of the fact that Poe does not give a strong clarification to the storyteller's infringing loss of rational soundness, maybe recommending that franticness may occur whenever to any individual, the storyteller concedes the part of liquor in his conduct. Moreover, the entry of the second feline is firmly identified with his liquor abuse, since he first finds the feline in a dingy drinking foundation. The second feline at last fills in as the facilitator of equity when it uncovers the cadaver's concealing spot toward the finish of the story, and its underlying appearance over a hogshead of gin or rum accentuates its ethical…

    • 1653 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pluto Quotes

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages

    11. The significance about the new cat and his markings is its resemblance of Pluto. As recalled by the main character, he noticed the new cat has a missing eye like Pluto did. However, the main comparison between this cat and Pluto was the white splotch, covering the region of the breast. When Pluto was murdered by the main character, there was a rope around him that caused his death.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Similarities of symbols in “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Lottery” There is always an inevitability of an outcome at ones point of life. Poe’s story about “The Masque of the Red Death” shows how the partygoers becomes folly and avoid death at all cost. Jackson’s story about “The Lottery” shows how Tessie mentioning the fact that the lottery was unjust lead to her own death. Both authors present vividly in their stories, the inevitability of each characters own death. Poe paints a picture in his stories so that the readers understand what is happening at each stage of the story line.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    All of the dangerous actions going on in the story like killing the first cat, cutting the eyes out of the cats, and hanging pluto create a very scary mood. He does all of these things and talks about being possessed and demonic, which creates…

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The new cat knew what the narrator would do in the interest of his insanity. It was as if an eye for an eye, but an eye for a life as well. The act of revenge led to the narrator to fully develop his psychosis to the highest level, leading him to his death. Edgar Allan Poe used figurative language and symbolism to show how dangerous the mind of the narrator had indeed become. As the reader saw in The Black Cat the narrator’s character had kept progressing or declining as the story went on.…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Annotated Bibliography Benfey, Christopher. “Critics on Poe.” Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 2nd Edition. Ed.…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The narrators devilish attempt failed, though. Later on in the story, Pluto shows back up after the narrator thought he had scared Pluto away. At this point, this infuriates the narrator and he kills Pluto by hanging him from a tree. This symbolizes how the narrator tries to completely rid his life of all evil that is associated with his life. Pluto may have been a cat in the…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this story there are three different characters the narrator, the narrator’s wife, and the cat. The narrator is this story is also unnamed like the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” but this narrator is much calmer and rational. The narrator starts the story of by telling us that he is going to die tomorrow and wants us to know who he truly is. He says, “But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburden my soul.” (Poe “The Black Cat” 3)…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He begins by loving animals, then he has an aversion to them, then it escalates to “a beast” causing him to suffer. The change in heart demonstrates how the events in his life are coming back to haunt him. The characterization throughout the novel provides a window into the madness caused by the narrator’s malicious intentions. Thus crimes which go unpunished by law can still punish a person in the subconscious. Niwar Obaid explains the deterioration of the human mind as horrific events wreak havoc from within in his article, “Stylistic Analysis of ‘The Black Cat’ by Edgar Allan Poe.”…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Without seeing this story through the narrator’s eyes, the reader would lose the ability to understand why he thought he was sane. Poe leaves the reader with the ability to draw their own conclusions about the man, the cat, the wife and the situations surrounding them. When this story is first read it can come off as a frightening tale with little meaning, but once it is read again there is a much deeper meaning. First person point of view is keen in understanding the man vs. self conflict which is obviously very prevalent throughout the story. The reader is brought into the story with the expectation of an explanation of innocence but in reality is given an unprovoked confession of his crimes.…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity” (Poe 2). In this scene, the unnamed narrator shows weak reasoning when killing Pluto. He clearly shows that he will get nothing good out of killing the cat. By killing the cat for no reason, this shows that he acts without thinking portraying the qualities of an unreliable narrator. Aside from killing Pluto with a knife, he kills another pet showing weak reasoning.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics