Literary Interpratation Of The
When Edgar Allan Poe wrote �The Black Cat� in 1843, the word �paranoia� was not in existence. The mental illness of paranoia was not given its name until the twentieth century. What the narrator is suffering from would be called paranoia today. The definition of paranoia is psychosis marked by delusions and irrational decisions. This definition could best be described in the nineteenth century as being superstitious and believing that supernatural powers are affecting our decisions. Superstition and being taken over by the supernatural is a recurring metaphor for paranoia in Poe�s story.
At first, the narrator of the story is very caring and loves animals; being with animals is �one of ...
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the assumption that the narrator will have bad luck. In Greek mythology, Pluto was the god of the dead and ruler of the underground. The symbolism of the cat�s name can be used to show that in some way the cat will be involved with death.
When the narrator returned home after a night of drinking and noticed that Pluto was avoiding him, he went on a search for it. Upon finding and grabbing Pluto, the narrator is bitten in the hand by the cat. Because of this bite, �the fury of a demon instantly possessed� the man, and he �knew [himself] no longer� (347). Since the black cat, associated with evil, bit the narrator, he now has evil inside of him. After this attack, the narrator first shows signs of mental illness. His saying he �knew himself no longer� and that his soul has �take[n] its flight from [his] body� implies that he is not in control of his body and an outside power, the supernatural, is (347). After the attack, the narrator took out his pocketknife and stabbed ...
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a delusion, which is a symptom of paranoia. He quickly calms his worries about how the cat survived by saying that an onlooker watching the fire must have seen that the cat was tied to the tree and released it. Making oneself believe what is not true is also a sign of paranoia. The cat could not have been alive because it was hung from the tree in the morning, while the fire started late at night. The cat would have been dead by the time an audience would have formed outside of the burning house.
There is significance to the cat�s being seen by the narrator on the wall. The wall symbolizes the Wailing Wall, also known as the Western Wall, in Jerusalem. The wall was part of the ...
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"Literary Interpratation Of The." Essayworld.com. September 17, 2005. Accessed May 18, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Literary-Interpratation-Of-The/33441.
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