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The Black Cat - Online Term Paper

The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe wrote the poem “The Black Cat” in 1843 only six years before his untimely death. In the poem, the narrator expresses a type of paranoia. Mental illness was not recognized back in those days so the reader may have thought that Poe was simply crazy. Paranoia is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion. It is safe to say that the narrator in the poem was delusional but he, and his wife, were also very superstitious, “My wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise” (Poe 1). Edgar Allan Poe ...

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In ancient Greek religion and myth, the name Pluto refers to the ruler of the Underworld. The name of the cat can symbolize the evil that the cat brings to the narrators life. The color of the cat, which is black, represents the mystery, fear and evil that the cat brings in to the narrator’s life. Poe also had evil that occurred in his own life. According to Kenneth Silverman, in a short biography he wrote about Poe, he lost both of his parents at a very young age and was placed into foster care. There was a certain abandonment that was part of his evolving life. Poe’s father left the family and his mother died when he was only three years old. His foster father, who never formally adopted Poe, cut him off financially when he was in college and he was left to fend for himself. And then later in his life, his first wife died of tuberculosis. All of the people who Poe cared about left him behind. The story of the cat was very familiar to the abandonment Poe had always experienced. ...

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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 5/26/2011 08:48:54 PM
Submitted By: catherinekincaid
Category: Poetry & Poets
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1249
Pages: 5

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