In the story, the narrator becomes an alcoholic, which mirrors the same phenomenon in Poe’s life. In other words, in The Black Cat, Poe is retelling his story and how he was mentally tormented by a series of unfortunate occurrences including the death of his parents and wife. The life of Edgar Allan Poe might be considered an unhappy record of that “disaster” which “followed fast and followed faster” this man of brilliant capacities till it drove him into opposition with most of the world, deprived him of the love he so inordinately craved, paralyzed his creative abilities, seduced him to seek a vague nepenthe in the use of drugs and stimulants, and, its relentless purpose achieved, cast him aside, a helpless wreck, to die from the darkened tragedy of a Baltimore (370). Poe’s life experiences contributed largely to his obsession with a dark romanticism. However, the audience wonders why the author chose to focus on violence, murder, and terror in this story. Ultimately, he kills his wife in a rage of fury while attempting to kill the second cat that he adopted after murdering Pluto. He parades the audience with a series of gory acts, such as gouging eyes, hanging, and the axing of the innocent cat. The narrator kills his favorite pet, Pluto, and appears to enjoy the process. Murder and death are central to the story as the narrator descends into insanity due to alcoholism. Throughout the story of The Black Cat, Poe explores the themes of violence, death, and terror exclusively until the end of the narration. In the Black Cat, Poe uses metaphor, paradox, symbolism, foreshadowing, irony, repetition, and similes to explore the themes of death, violence, and terror. Ultimately, he kills Pluto, his once-beloved pet, and his wife suffers the same fate later in the story.
He starts mistreating his wife and pets without tenable reasons. They own a black cat named Pluto and life seems normal until the narrator sinks into alcoholism, which changes him forever. He marries someone equally loving, and they both share many common attributes and life interests. In the story, the narrator starts by highlighting his childhood and his undying love and compassion for animals. The Black Cat is one of such dark writings where Poe uses terror and depravity to explore the dark side of a home and how things can go awry. Poe is known for his mad and unbalanced psyche in writing dark and sinister works mainly due to his childhood experiences. This subgenre evolved from the transcendental philosophy, and it sought to explore the dark side of events or issues.
Alan Poe is one of the writers who advanced dark romanticism in the nineteenth century in America.
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