Sunday, January 22, 2012

black cat

Edgar Allen Poe themes for these three stories all have similarities. There are bizarre situations and themes of madness, revenge, horror and murder. They all end abruptly, leaving the reader with his hair standing up on the back of his neck. These are short gothic horror stories. The one theme, they all have in common, I believe is how easy it is for man to down slide into insanity.

In “The Black Cat” we see the story of a man who reaches his end through insanity, with the help of alcohol. At the beginning of the story he is pictured as a lover of animals, with many pets. His favorite was a black cat named Pluto. As he drank more and more, the effect of the alcohol caused him to begin to despise his pets. In a fit, thinking that the cat was, mocking him, the man gouged out the eye of the cat. For a while, he was remorseful of his action, but since the cat now fled him in terror, the feelings of sorrow turned to irritation. He then hung the cat. On the night that this was done, there was a fire that burned down his house. Soon the man wants another cat, and find an identical one, except for a white patch on its chest. He takes the ca

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