Scream of Guilt
Edgar Allan Poe is a poet, editor, and literary critic from the United States. Poe's poetry and short stories, especially his tales of mystery and macabre, are his most well-known works. "The Black Cat" is one of Poe’s short stories. It was first published in August 19, 1843. The story revolves around an unnamed narrator who is passionate about pets until he unreasonably turns to abuse them. Looking at the psychological traits of the narrator and the way he acts helps best to interpret the text.
Edger Allan Poe portrays his characters in such a way that the reader may go deeper into their acts and behaviors to have a better understanding of the mind. In this short story, Edgar Allan Poe introduces the protagonist, who suffers from a variety of mental issues, including guilt, superstitions, sadism, hatred, revenge, and strategic self-anti-conformity.
The narrator is so kind when he is a kid. “From my infancy, I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the rest of my companions” (Poe,1). Eventually, he turns into a different person, who kills his pets and his wife because of his mental instability.
Altogether, we see the narrator's strategic self-anti-conformity as he progresses from a compassionate person to a murderer. The narrator's unsanctified and genuine compassion for animals can never convince anyone that he can murder his pet, yet his psychological change forces him to do it.
I didn’t expect him killing his pets and wife! That was extremely an ironic end. However, reading such a story was indeed interesting, I’m excited to read more for Edgar.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Poe wrote many interesting short stories. Killing his pets and wife shows that a mental illness can turn a kind and good person into a murderer.
DeleteI have read many of Edgar Allan Poe's works. They never cease to amaze me! His characters' psyche encourages the reader's mind to work at full capacity. This one is no different, especially that Poe stayed true to his style and pattern in portraying his themes and characters.
ReplyDeleteHis style is truly the highlight of the entertainment he provides. I totally agree with you!
DeleteReading to Poe seems really difficult as his words can have more than one interpretation, and I think all his short stories are confusing. But I usually ask myself why he doesn’t name his characters and why the narrator is usually an unstable character. Do you have a reasonable answer?
ReplyDeleteUsing an "unreliable narrator" is a repetitive and preferred style by Poe; he is a master at creating narrators who force readers to question the nature of their and the narrators' sanity by directly portraying the mental and physical stresses upon the narrator while demonstratinh smaller mental and emotional stresses onto the reader.
DeleteThe mysterious taste to Poe's stories mixes between real life and fiction. Wisdom can also be interpreted from his works despite them containing a hint of fantasy in them.
ReplyDeleteTrue! He even uses the father figure in most of his stories, and this takes us back to his biography and the relationship he had with his father.
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