Todorov Gothic Criteria

Superior Essays
Todorov Tells All: Categorization of Gothic Literature In gothic literature, there are different ways to categorize stories and tales. There is a concept known as “The Fantastic”, based off of Tzvetan (Yzetyen) Todorov’s ideas of the gothic criteria for gothic literature. The stories “The Lonesome Place”, “The Reencounter” and “The Black Cat” each fall under a category in Todorov’s gothic criteria: The Uncanny, The Marvelous and The Fantastic. In Todorov’s gothic criteria, there are three different categories: The Uncanny, The Marvelous and The Fantastic. In stories that fall under The Uncanny, there is always a rational solution to the strange events that take place. There is nothing hiding deep in the stories and readers are not left wondering …show more content…
Many of Edgar Allen Poe’s works fall under The Fantastic category and “The Black Cat” is no different. The story begins with a man telling the readers about his life, wife and their pets. He also talks about his favorite pet, a large black cat named Pluto. The narrator makes sure to tell readers about his wife’s ideas about Pluto. Poe writes, “In speaking of his intelligence, 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” (79). The narrator continues on and tells readers that he is an alcoholic and often times hurts the animals and his wife. He even goes as far as removing one of Pluto’s eyes and regretting it afterwards. One day he decided that he needs to complete his evil needs. The narrator says, “And then it came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS” (80). He slips a noose around Pluto from the neck and hangs him to a tree outside. Later on, his home catches on fire and the only thing left is a single wall with ashes from the fire in the shape of a cat being hung. The narrator does not focus on that very much and continues the story. He and his wife move elsewhere and he finds a large black cat with a white spot on its chest. He takes the cat home and the white spot turns into another shape. Poe and the narrator write, “I say, the image of a hideous – of a ghastly thing – of the GALLOWS! – oh, mournful and terrible engine of Horror and of Crime – of Agony and of death!” (83). He decides that he will kill this cat as well. He follows it into the basement with an axe. Right as he is going to hit it, his wife stops him. Immediately he turns and bashes her in the dead. He opens the walls and puts her in there. After a while the police arrive and question him about his wife and he feels no nervousness. He goes about

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