The Black Cat: What Goes Around Comes Around

In his story "The Black Cat," Edgar Allan Poe dramatizes his experience
with madness, and challenges the readers suspension of disbelief by using
imagery in describing the plot and characters. Poe uses foreshadowing to
describe the scenes of sanity versus insanity. He writes “for the most wild yet
homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor illicit belief.
Yet mad I am not- and surely do I not dream,” alerts the reader about a
forthcoming story that will test the boundaries of reality and fiction. The
author asserts his belief of the activities described in the story when he
states “to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburden my soul”(80).
Poe describes his ...

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cat that peaks
interest and anticipation. Poe also describes a touch foreshadowing and
suspension of disbelief when he illustrates his wives response to the cat when
he writes "all black cats are witches in disguise, not that she was ever serious
upon this point-and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than it
happened, just now, to be remembered"(80).
Poe expresses his early attachment to the cat and dramatizes the
character changes he experiences when he writes "our friendship lasted, in this
manner, for several years, during which my general temperament and character-
through instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance-had (I blush to confess it)
experienced a radical alteration for the worse"(81). He warns the reader of new
events in a cynical tone and implies the beginning of the madness he denies. Poe
first illustrates this madness when he uses imagery to describe the brutal scene
with the cat when he writes "I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen knife, opened
it, ...

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The Black Cat: What Goes Around Comes Around. (2005, December 3). Retrieved June 25, 2017, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Black-Cat-What-Goes-Around-Comes/37437

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 12/3/2005 08:06:28 PM
Category: English
Words: 1210
Pages: 5

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