s may be
the most disturbing of any of his other stories. The victims include not a human being but an
animal as well. Poe uses an unusual approach of fantasy intertwined with reality so that the
reader almost loses the boundaries between these two elements.
Narration
The point of view is first
person with the unnamed narrator the main character in the story. The narrator spends much of
time trying to convince the reader that he is not insane. As the story progresses, it is
obvious that the man was not only an alcoholic but an insane murderer. The man commits several
heinous acts and knows that they are wrong particularly the brutal killing of the first
cat.
Conflict
The main
character faces a conflict with alcoholism. He even admits that this problem has tainted his
entire life. He also seems to be challenged by deciding between reality and
fantasy.
Theand Rising Action
The main character awaits his execution the next day. Through the telling of the story,
he intends to convince the reader that he is completely sane. His alcoholism impacts his
life. He turns on his beloved cat and cuts out its eye. The man cannot live with guilt of what
he has done. One day, he hangs the cat from a tree in the yard. That night the house burns and
only one wall is left standing.
One morning, in cold
blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; -hung it with the
teas streaming from eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; --hung because I knew that
in so doing I was committing a sin€¦
On that wall was
been burned the impression of the cat hanging.
Further Action
After several months of trying to return to normalcy, the man
goes into a saloon and sees another black cat. It has a missing eye and looks exactly like the
other cat except it has a little white around its neck. Initially, the narrator loves this
cat. But as before, he begins to be annoyed by this one as well. He notices that the cats
white around his neck mysteriously looks like a noose for hanging.
As the man and his wife were walking
down the stairs to the cellar, the wife almost falls over the cat. The man becomes furious and
picks up an axe to kill the cat. The wife defends the cat, and the man buries the axe in her
brain rather than the cat.
Falling
Action
The narrator decides to hide the
body of his wife in the cellar by using plaster to cover over where she was placed. After he
buries her, the main character notices that the cat is missing.
After four
days, the police come to find out about his missing wife. Thinking that he has hidden the body
so well, the narrator takes the police down to the cellar to look for his wife. Arrogantly, he
taps on the wall where the bodys lies hidden. A scream is heard from inside the wall. The police
tear down the wall to find the dead woman with the missing cat on her head and covered in
blood.
Commentary
The boundaries between fantasy andbecome
difficult to separate. All of the events that happen in the story could have happened. Some of
them are less likely than others. For example, the cat staying quiet until the tapping on the
wall seems unlikely since it undoubtedly would have wanted out.
As the story
moves toward the end, the narrator loses his grip on reality and is unsure himself as to what
actually happens in the story.
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