Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Aspects Of The Narrator In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” - Term Papers

Aspects Of The Narrator In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” is a perverse grotesque short story. What makes this tale so horrific is how Poe has created an unreliable, and nameless, narrator to tell this story. Telling this story from the first person point of view intensifies the shock and horror, which stops short of “the wavering line of disgust” (Womack 1).
The narrator’s unreliability is born from three major influences. His biggest influence is mostly due to his battles with “…the [f]iend [i]ntemperance” (Poe 894). This relationship with alcohol allows his behavior to weave from docile to demonic, in smooth succession. The fact that he is telling this story in flashbacks, as he awaits his execution, is ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

the narrator into a demon like creature, and because this downfall is so very relevant to many of our own society problems, the story takes on an eerie, human reality twist. Slowly, over time, his personality alters from once a loving, caring, and nurturing man, into a mad, spontaneous killer. It is while the narrator is intoxicated that he inflicts the cruelest acts of violence on his cat because “…the fury of the demon [alcohol] instantly possessed [him]” (Poe 894).
From the alcohol, perverseness provides the rational for otherwise unjustifiable acts, such as killing the first cat, and yet at times the narrator feels quick and minute pangs of guilt.
Although he seems to fully recall all his past events with such persistent effort, it must be remembered that the narrator is nothing more than an alcoholic, who has a distorted view of reality. This distorted view of reality that the narrator possesses is only intensified by the fact that he is recalling these events from memory. ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.

Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE:

APA
MLA
Chicago
Turabian

Aspects Of The Narrator In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”. (2006, August 27). Retrieved October 22, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Aspects-Narrator-Edgar-Allan-Poes-Black/51411

"Aspects Of The Narrator In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 27 Aug. 2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Aspects-Narrator-Edgar-Allan-Poes-Black/51411>

"Aspects Of The Narrator In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”." Essayworld.com. August 27, 2006. Accessed October 22, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Aspects-Narrator-Edgar-Allan-Poes-Black/51411.

JOIN NOW

Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays

PAPER DETAILS

Added: 8/27/2006 02:24:05 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Free Paper
Words: 729
Pages: 3

Save |

Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS

Save and find your favorite essays easier