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The Black Cat (short story)
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== Analysis == Like the narrator in Poe's "[[The Tell-Tale Heart]]", the narrator of "The Black Cat" is of questionable sanity. In the beginning of the tale, the narrator says that he would be "mad indeed" should he expect a reader to believe the story, implying that he has already been accused of madness.<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Cleman |chapter=Irresistible Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense |editor=Harold Bloom |editor-link=Harold Bloom |title=Edgar Allan Poe |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |location=New York City |year=2002 |page=73 |isbn=978-0-7910-6173-2 |oclc=48176842}}</ref> The extent to which the narrator claims to have loved his animals suggests mental instability in the form of having “too much of a good thing”. His partiality for animals substitutes “the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man”. Since the narrator's wife shares his love of animals, he likely thinks of her as another pet, seeing as he distrusts and dislikes humans. Additionally, his failure to understand his excessive love of animals foreshadows his inability to explain his [[motivation|motives]] for his actions.<ref name=Gargano>Gargano, James W. "The Black Cat": Perverseness Reconsidered". ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language'' 2.2 (1960): 172–178.</ref> One of Poe's darkest tales, "The Black Cat" includes his strongest denunciation of alcohol. The narrator's perverse actions are brought on by his [[alcoholism]], a "disease" and "fiend" which also destroys his personality.<ref>{{cite journal |first=L. Moffitt |last=Cecil |url=http://www.eapoe.org/pstudies/ps1970/p1972204.htm |title=Poe's Wine List |journal=Poe Studies |volume=V |issue=2 |date=December 1972 |page=42}}</ref> The use of the [[black cat]] evokes various [[superstition]]s, including the idea voiced by the narrator's wife that they are all [[witch]]es in disguise. Poe owned a black cat. In his "Instinct vs Reason – A Black Cat" he stated: "The writer of this article is the owner of one of the most remarkable black cats in the world – and this is saying much; for it will be remembered that black cats are all of them witches."<ref>{{cite book|last=Barger|first=Andrew|title=Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories and Poems|year=2008|publisher=Bottletree Books LLC|location=US|isbn=978-1-933747-10-1|page=58}}</ref> In Scottish and Irish mythology, the [[Cat-sìth]] is described as being a black cat with a white spot on its chest, not unlike the cat the narrator finds in the tavern. The eponymous cat is named Pluto after the [[Pluto (mythology)|Roman god]] of the [[Underworld]]. Although Pluto is a neutral character at the beginning of the story, he becomes [[antagonist]]ic in the narrator's eyes once the narrator becomes an alcoholic. The alcohol pushes the narrator into fits of intemperance and violence, to the point at which everything angers him – Pluto in particular, who is always by his side, becomes the malevolent witch who haunts him even while avoiding his presence. When the narrator cuts Pluto's eye from its socket, this can be seen as symbolic of self-inflicted partial blindness to his own vision of [[good and evil|moral goodness]].<ref name=Gargano/> The fire that destroys the narrator's house symbolizes the narrator's "almost complete moral disintegration".<ref name=Gargano/> The only remainder is the impression of Pluto upon the wall, which represents his unforgivable and incorrigible sin.<ref name=Gargano/> From a rhetorician's standpoint, an effective scheme of omission that Poe employs is [[Zeugma and syllepsis|diazeugma]], or using many verbs for one subject; it omits pronouns. Diazeugma emphasizes actions and makes the narrative swift and brief.<ref>Zimmerman, Brett. ''Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style''. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 2005.</ref>
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