The Black Cat: Horror or Optimistic Edgar A. Poe is traditional considered one of the greatest masters of horror stories. “The Black Cat” is one of his masterpieces, so the naïve readers may think that “The Black Cat” is a horror work. In fact, however, “The Black Cat” is not a horror work but an optimistic work, which the ideal readers may think. This essay explains that “The Black Cat” is a work reaching optimistic conclusions about human existence through horror. This essay talks about five parts. First, the tale “The Black Cat” is a literary confession. Second, there is a tension between fabula and plot in “The Black Cat.” Third, the confession is a plot, in which the narrated events follow a logical order: the good is affirmed,
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In “The Black Cat,” these words “the fangs” and “with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire” shows the symbol of the demon. Thus, these words shows the hell in Christian mythology.
Except the hell in Christian mythology, the ideal readers can also identify the Spirit of the Perverse, and the words presenting morally unacceptable actions. The Spirit of the Perverse is showed by the changes of the narrator’s attitudes to the hurt that the black cat gets and the death of the black cat. First comes the narrator’s the hurt of the black cat. At the beginning, the narrator is sad and guilty, because he thinks the human nature is good. Then his attitude becomes “feeble and equivocal.” He feels at ease, and thinks hurting the black cat is nothing.
It is same to the change of the attitude to the death of the black cat. Faced with the death of the black cat, the narrator is scared at first, but in the end, he feels at ease again. He thinks that the nature of human is evil why he is relieved by the death of the black cat. The changes of the narrator’s attitudes to the black cat’s hurt and death, and the changes of the human nature’s understanding, which shows the spirit of the perverse, lead the narrator to kill his wife. Therefore, the spirit of the perverse is a form of the
In “The Black Cat,” these words “the fangs” and “with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire” shows the symbol of the demon. Thus, these words shows the hell in Christian mythology.
Except the hell in Christian mythology, the ideal readers can also identify the Spirit of the Perverse, and the words presenting morally unacceptable actions. The Spirit of the Perverse is showed by the changes of the narrator’s attitudes to the hurt that the black cat gets and the death of the black cat. First comes the narrator’s the hurt of the black cat. At the beginning, the narrator is sad and guilty, because he thinks the human nature is good. Then his attitude becomes “feeble and equivocal.” He feels at ease, and thinks hurting the black cat is nothing.
It is same to the change of the attitude to the death of the black cat. Faced with the death of the black cat, the narrator is scared at first, but in the end, he feels at ease again. He thinks that the nature of human is evil why he is relieved by the death of the black cat. The changes of the narrator’s attitudes to the black cat’s hurt and death, and the changes of the human nature’s understanding, which shows the spirit of the perverse, lead the narrator to kill his wife. Therefore, the spirit of the perverse is a form of the