Hover for more information. The narrator in "The Black Cat," by Poe, mentions the wall to the police because he can no longer hide his black deeds, and he must be punished for those deeds.
The brief outline the narrator provides us of his wife suggests that she is kind, giving, loyal, and even heroic at the end. The narrator says she has "in a high degree, that humanity of feeling which had once been [his] distinguishing characteristic." She is a highly sympathetic character, in her own right.
Most of Europe considers the black cat a symbol of bad luck, particularly if one walks across the path in front of a person, which is believed to be an omen of misfortune and death. ... The black cat in folklore has been able to change into human shape to act as a spy or courier for witches or demons.
The black cat symbolizes the narrator's or Poe's alcoholism. Edgar Allen Poe has been accused of being an alcoholic throughout his life and it may have actually lead up to the cause of his death. The short story may give a subtle view at Poe's fight with the disease and the disease's eventual triumph.
As a symbol, eyes—especially when contemplated from the perspective of a paranoid narrator—represent the kind of existential persecution that comes from knowing that one is being observed, yet being unable to locate the observer or do anything to escape their gaze.
The fire represents the narrator's mental deterioration.
The second cat represents a number of things to the narrator: an earlier mistreatment, an earlier victim, and perhaps, through the patch of white, even the narrator's future act for which he is arrested and (probably) sentenced to death.
The fact that his wife tried to spare the life of their second cat was the reason that the narrator murdered her in "The Black Cat." Indirectly, the murder was caused by the narrator's alcoholism, mental instability, and guilt over the murder of his first cat, Pluto.
When the narrator knocked on the spot where his wife's body was the cat meowed loudly and the police tore down the wall and found the cat and the body of the wife. The narrator is going to be hanged the next day just like he had hanged the cat.
The name of the narrator's first cat, Pluto, is also the name of the Roman god associated with death; he is the equivalent of the Greek god, Hades, the Lord of the Underworld. Pluto is, then, heavily associated with darkness and death.
She likes them but is superstitious that they are witches in disguise. How does the narrator's wife feel about cats? He cuts out one of the cat's eyes.
The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Parfitt, Georgina. "Poe's Stories Characters: Narrator's wife (The Black Cat)." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 8 Oct 2013.
When the second cat follows the man home, she treats it lovingly. When she sees the cat is missing an eye, she loves it even more. ... When he tries to kill the cat with an axe, she stops him. He axes her in the head, and she dies and her body is concealed in the cellar wall.
The superstition of the narrator's wife in "The Black Cat" that cats are witches in disguise seems to be proved correct when their house catches fire the night after the narrator kills Pluto by hanging him from a tree.
The answer is B “upon its head ... sat the hideous beasts... I had walled the monster up within the the tomb.
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" the falling action takes place at the initial part of the story. Explanation: Falling action refers to the part of the story which comes before the end of the story. Usually, it comes after the climax in any story.
Technically speaking, in Poe's story "The Black Cat" the first thing that 'happens' is that the narrator informs us he is going to die tomorrow and wishes to unburden his soul tonight by exposing "a series of household events" that have terrified, tortured, and destroyed him in the time leading to this moment.
Plot. The story is presented as a first-person narrative using an unreliable narrator. He is a condemned man at the outset of the story. The narrator tells us that from an early age he has loved animals; he and his wife have many pets, including a large, beautiful black cat (as described by the narrator) named Pluto.
The narrator's wife appears to have mixed feelings about cats. While he suggests she shares his liking of animals and brings many "agreeable" pets into the house because she knows how much he likes them, she is also superstitious.
He burns the cat in a fire. ...
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat", the narrator repeats the phase "hung it" multiple times to put an emphasis on the importance of his doing and to really accentuate the violence and the cruelty of his act: a crime that was committed out of pure viciousness.
What happens as a result of a change in the "general temperament and character" of the narrator in "The Black Cat"? ... He begins abusing his wife and pet cat.
What caused the narrator to change in how he treated his animals and his wife? ... The narrator tells us that his feelings of anger toward the cat for avoiding him are corrupt and a result of his drinking and that people who do not drink never feel this kind of corrupt desire to do things that they should not do.
In “The Black Cat”, by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator commits a brutal murder of his wife and also tortures and kills many of his own pets. At first glance, his actions do seem to make him appear insane but there is evidence in his story that shows that he is not really crazy. ...
Pluto
Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat" is a story of guilt, remorse and how a man's actions haunt him. In the story, the narrator tells of how he, his wife, and their servant live together with many animals. ... The narrator is haunted by his actions and the cat which eventually drives him completely mad.