The Black Cat - E. A. Poe

Afterwards he felt into horror and remorse and he again plunged into excess like wine.

Then came the spirit of PERVERSENESS. This is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself.

One morning he slipped a noose around its neck and hung it. On the night of this day, 141g68b he was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of his bed were in flames. The destruction was complete. The next day he visited the home. The walls, except one, had fallen. This exception was stood about the middle of the house, and against it had rested the narrator's bed.

The plastering had here resisted to the action of the fire and he attributed this fact to its having been recently spread. Upon this wall there was the figure of a gigantic cat,

The narrator tries to find an explanation: someone of the crowd may have cut the cat from the tree and thrown into the camber to arouse him from sleep. The falling of the wall had compressed the head of the cat into the freshly-spread plaster.

For months the man cannot forget the image of the cat in the wall. During this time he begins to regret the loss of his cat Pluto, and to look for similar pet to take the cat's place.

One night the narrator sees a black cat in a tavern. It looks like Pluto except for an indefinite white spot on this chest. It follows him home. At first he likes the cat, for it is quite affectionate. But his attitude changes; tension builds up and grows to hatred, caused in part by the narrator's discovery that, like Pluto, the new cat has lost  an eye.

The narrator, only because of his terrors about his first cat, restrains himself from doing the new cat harm. But to his horror, the white patch of fur on his new cat's chest gradually assumes the shape of the gallows. The narrator begins to fancy the cat as the tormentor of his heart. Perversely, the narrator succumbs entirely to evil thoughts.

Finally, one day as the narrator and his wife descend the steps into their cellar, the cat causes the narrator to lose his mind. The narrator flies into rage and tries to kill the cat with an axe. The wife, trying to save the life of the cat, catches hold of the axe. Then, entirely out of his footing, the narrator plants the axe in her skull and kills her.

The narrator, after killing his wife, decides to hide the body into the wall, he look for the cat but needlessly, at last this night he sleeps very well. The second and the third day passed and still his tormentor came not.

Four days later some policemen come to the house. They search the cellar several times, but they find nothing. They are about to leave when the narrator raps heavily with a cane upon the wall to show how solid it is. Suddenly they hear howls from within that cause the policemen to tear apart the wall, so they discover the body and the man's crime. As he sees a cat sitting on the head of the corpse, the narrator thinks ha has accidentally bricked it up as well as his wife

TEXES'S ANALYSIS

WHAT:

This is a horror tale infact in this short story Poe explored the distorted human mind and the influence the subcanscious has on human behaviour. The story is narrated by the protagonist in first person.

WHERE:

There aren't detailed description of places, we know that the story is situated in the narrator's house. This is a house with a garderden where there are a tree (where the cat is hung it). After the fire the protagonist had a new house the old building which their poverty compared them to in habit (251-252).

WHEN:

The story is narrated in a chronological order by the narrator. The verbs tenses are at the past. There aren't particular historical references in the tales. The protagonist narrated the story of his life, when for his excessive drinking of alcohol he became crazy.

WHO:

The Narrator:

He was a protagonist of this story, we haven't a fisical description and we don't know nothing about his job or his life. Since he was child, was noted for his docility (18-19). He was especially fond of animals and was indulged by his parents with a great variety of pets. With these he spent most of his time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them (20-23). He married early and was happy to find his wife a disposition not uncongenial with his own (33-34). The protagonist an his wife had bird, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbit, a small monkey and a cat. (36-37) Pluto, - this was the cat's name - was his favourite pet and playmate. (46-47) During the years his general temperament and character - through the instrumentality of the excessive drinking of alcohol - had experienced a radical alteration for the worse. He grew day by day more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feeling of other; he suffered himself to use intemperate language to his wife. At length he even offered her personal violence. (50-56) Whit his pet he used violence, however for Pluto he still retained sufficient regard to restrain his for maltreating him.(57-58) For his excessive drinking of alcohol he became crazy, and one night he cut one of Pluto's eye from the socket with a pen-knife (66-76). Afterwards he felt into horror and remorse and he again plunged into excess like wine 77-82) Then came, as if to his final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. This is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself 90-93). After the die of Pluto into the fire, for months he cannot forget the image of the cat in the wall, during this time he begins to regret the loss of his cat Pluto, and to look for similar pet to take the cat's place. But when he found a new cat it is more similar to Pluto. At the end he was afraid also this cat because he hadn't an eye. The narrator begins to fancy the cat as the tormentor of his heart. The cat was his obsession.

The wife:

She was a protagonist's wife of this story, we haven't a fisical description and we don't know nothing about his job or his life. Observing husband partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. (34-36) She was superstitious. She was the most usual and the most patient of sufferer. She was killed by his husband when trying to save the life of the cat.

The cat:

The name was Pluto. He was remarkably large and beautiful animal entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree,(38-39) he was narrator favourite pet and playmate, he attended the narrator wherever he went about house. It was even with difficulty that the protagonist could prevent the cat from following him through the street. Our friendship lasted for several years in this manner (46-50). When the narrator became alcoholic the cat was diffident to him. The cat was hung up by his owner. The new cat was more similar at Pluto, it was black fully as large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one. Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body; but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast. (166-170)