PLAN détaillé THE BLACK CAT

8/2/2019 PLAN détaillé THE BLACK CAT

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THE BLACK CAT: PLAN

Introduction

The black cat is a one of Poe’s best known stories, it was published in the Saturday evening Post in1843 and it deals with an unknown first person narrator who waits for his hanging in jail. He relates

the story of how he, a kind normal man and husband, came to this. Indeed, he comes home drunk onenight and tortures one of his pets, a black cat, that he later on kills in a gruesome and shockingmanner. Not long after this heinous crime, the narrator and his wife begin noticing strange and

terrifying phenomena around them. Their house catches on fire suddenly and, only one wall remainsstanding, on it is the image of the murdered cat. Soon afterwards he founds another black cat (except

this one has the shape of gallows on its chest) and decides to take him home. In spite of the cat’sadoration, the narrator starts to be more and more angry and scared in the presence of his pet to the

point that he decides to kill it. His wife comes between them and is murdered instead. The narratorthen proceeds to wall her up but his crime is discovered when during a police search, the cat that had

been trapped with the woman, shrieks, revealing the corpse’s location.

The passage under study is close to the beginning of the tale, the narrator has first presented himself

as a respectable person with a particular love for pets and mostly cats, a love that is shared by his

wife. Due to his addiction to alcohol he becomes violent towards his wife and his pets but still has

some respect for his one cat: Pluto – passage starts when he will finally cross this last limit to ill-treatment.

We will study this passage trying to figure out how the the search for this man’s motives to kill and

torture turns this tale into one of the scariest Poe ever wrote

We will first see that this passage is a psychological study, done by the patient itself, in which we tryto figure out how a murderer’s mind works. In the second part we will see that this is a turning point

in the black cat but also one of Poe’s most accomplished passages in horror narrative.

Read the first few lines: so as to get in the mood and talk about the narrator. Flashback. Why

he is to be executed might be wondered!

“For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence.Yet, mad am I not —and very surely do I not dream... My immediate purpose is to place before the

world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events.”



1. A PSYCHO STUDY: FROM THE INNER WORKINGS OF A MURDERER’S MIND

A) An unreliable narrator?

- 1st person, unnamed narrator: as usual, from the inside intense psycho study for the

reader : valid for any man!>beginning read: “narrative which I am about to pen”

- He first appears as innocent: how smart and refined he is described

>”Yet mad am I not” insisting on the final negation!

>”docility and humanity of my disposition”

- His writing shows reason and control + fancy prose (Nabokov?)>”expound” “intellect” + chronological history: a well-constructed speech

> Euphemisms and fancy prose style: violent (« ill-used » « offer personal violence »)

“excess” “drown in vine” (metaphora) “deed” over crime

>“it is true”=> concession

- Rejects discretely his guilt

> l. 1 : Compléments circonstanciels, viennent avant le sujet : it is as if the narrator wastrying to hide behind the circumstances, specially behind his intoxication.

Also, semantic field of Christian conception of Evil etc : « demon » « soul » « possess »> l.4 and l.5 : the narrator tries to avoid taking direct responsibility : he says a demon

possessed him + he knew himself no longer = he wasn’t himself anymore = it isn’t him that

commits the crime ? idem dans les lignes qui suivent : « my soul seemed to take flight from

my body »> No real guilt: unlike the Tell-tale heart or Crime and Punishment

- Suspiciousness of the reader >“not believe me”, “mad”, jail

> First « I » = sujet de « fancied » => relevant and foreshadowing (drama irony ?)

- Even him is lost indeed

> asks for “causes and effects” => reader must explain it all

- Alcohol: denied as a cause but…

>right before our extract : « disease » « Alcohol » personified

> Juxtaposition première phrase =action enchainée + habitude ! + « my » => habitude telleque fait partie de lui

>“gin-nurtured” = coin word -> alcoholism

Alcoholism involves “recurrent social or interpersonnal problems” and some syndromelong-term: confusion of imagination as memory; delirium tremens=hallucinations or

illusions; all complicated by denial: psychological maneuvers to blame the pb on sthgother than drink

- A man who is aware of the slow transformation in himself –so so can be the reader-

although he gives the impression that he cannot totally explain it

Poe writes a real psychological thrilling short story: it plunges us inside the twisted mind of

an abusive killer detailing the stages of his breakdown.



B) An increase in violence and tension

- We could say that this passage is the true beginning of the story – at least of the

action because it is the passage where violence begins

>Before this passage there are very little relevant elements – mostly composed of prosaicdetails (imparfait: the first paragraphs give the setting, the background, and would

correspond to this past tense. Our texte= action= passé simple français)– The horror story

really starts when the narrator starts describing his fits.> Indeed narrator’s character= violent : but, at first he attempts to conceal through the use

of euphemisms (« ill-used » « offer personnal violence » = tries to distract us with style).In our passage he finally accepts his fits of rage for what they are, instead of saying he is

“irritable” like before, he admits that he acts with “the fury of a demon” = indeed he isacting under the influence of alcohol which we already know makes him particularly

violent – not full responsibility: “possessed” / he is not really acting

> violence begins on l. 2: Second “I”= sujet de “seized” => violence (dans notre texte, son« I » est sujet du verbe « seize » dès le début : montre dès le départ qu’il agit spontanément

et violemment ?). By making himself the subject of the verb he takes responsibility for the

violence.

- Mistreatment is particularly important in this tale because it is gruesome and

extremely cruel + important hints on the murderer’s mind

>He takes the eye out (on an impulse = shows how violent his nature is because there is no

between point: his first time abusing the cat is already beyond all forgiveness) +Remorse… but then irritation increasing again and our opinion of the narrator is onlygetting worse: The crime (done in “cool blood”) – the more he describes his actions, the

more we feel that he is very dangerous and so the tension rises: the reader wants to findout what he’s capable of.

-

The “I” out: >”soul detached”/ etc. “does not recognize himself” => could happen to anyone: discharge

the guilt and more than anything keep us from thinking violence is in his soul.>“I knew myself no longer” => double => schizophrenia?Unconscious “found himself committing” soul detached from bodyword “original” is opposed to “fiendish malevolence”= he tries to prove that his nature

remains pure and good> “I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse” Rhythm = binary + half/half =>duality= constant struggle: implies that good and evil coexist in every man’s soul,

- Slowly loses control?

> we can see it in his writing : he is less attentive to his style: punctuation in the lastsparagraphs= lots of “--“ and “?” and “italicized words as because” => loses control, gets

carried away by his feelings as he remembers the facts

>l. 21 “at first”=>creates suspense, it implies the “but” that comes afterwards= first step of the increasing of madness and anger

>“irritation”= tending to produce anger, annoyance, impatience, soreness – euphemism(?)– is he implying he is ill? – irrational irritation that makes the narrator itchy!

>“and then came”=final step + irreversible.

- We know more crimes will come = suspense!>“deed” reference to Macbeth + the narrator is kept from sleeping l. 46 = all of thesereferences to Macbeth mean that the narrator is caught in an endless spiral of violence

from which he cannot escape = “blood will have blood” >l. 23“final and irrevocable”= synonyms meant to insist + “overthrow” => no way back

foreshadowed => suspense what could be worse? How far will he go?



2. THE TURNING POINT OF POE’S ACCOMPLISHED GOTHIC TALE

Gothic literature: as style that explores humanity’s fear and fascination with the unknown and

forces we cannot comprehend. Typical motifs of this genre include darkness, horrid figures,

illusion…

A) The atmosphere

Behind the apparent preciseness, Poe creates an atmosphere giving the reader gooseflesh.

- Hazy time

> Flashback: time of enunciation different from what is related

> Time indicators : Pluto= « old » after « several years »

>“one night” -> premier indic de temps -> faux indic précis: indéterminé => tale« one morning »

« on the night of the day » : still blurred timeChge of paragraph: “Morning”

Chge of paragraph: “in the meantime” > Opposition “soon” and “slowly recovered” blurs it more

- Space: most of the drama occurs in the home, and revolves around the narrator's

relationship with his wife and pets. Like so many narratives of terror and depravity, this

one combines the family drama with the horror or Gothic. This taps into some of ourdeepest fears – fears of what can go wrong at home. Home is where we are supposed to be

most comfortable and safe, and is also where we are most vulnerable. As in " The Tell-Tale-Heart

- Vulnerability of the cat > Cat= « he » not « it » at the beginning => love

>“poor” beast => confession felt with remorse: vulnerable cat indeed!>“extreme terror” of the cat: still humanized and pitifulThe one that is supposed to be loved and protected is to be beaten, mutilated, killed

- Symbols revolving around black cats + Pluto

> that "...all black cats [were] witches in disguise.” . Pluto's possible magical significance is

first noted by the wife, who states that black cats are said to be witches in disguise> Pluto= in Greek and Roman mythology was the god of the dead and the ruler of the

underworld

- Fire

> Destruction, queek; something that eat, consumme: as the narr is>Hell

- Alcohol >“fumes”: memory lapses



B) Horror

Secondly published in Poe's 1845 (collection tales) of horror writing technique. Poe even

believed that being instrumental in defining the current genre; he felt created a singledominant impression or effect on the readers’ attention.

Beginning of the short story: "[the events] have presented little but horror"

- Biting + mutilation + the hanging (POOR BABY CAT) -> “masters of horror” movie- PERVERSENESS

>“perverseness” = coin word =1 easily irritated or annoyed 2 having or showing lowered

moral character or standards 3 sticking to an opinion, purpose, or course of action in spiteof reason, arguments, or persuasion

His own def follows: “one of the primitive impulses of the human heart” “primary” “Man” => a def of Humanity as a philosophical essay follows:- “we” = human beings

- “?” rhethorical questions

- “Man” and “Law” => concepts

> Retour histoire “the spirit of perverseness, I say, came” passé simple => aps théorie,pratique exemple

- >“to vex itself”=> autre chose pousse “soul” { se faire du tort -> présentée comme element

exterieur indépendant du narrateur et avec une volonté : « urged me” - Cold blood :

>“hung it” repeated: awfulness of the crime known - “because” repeated: rational reasons explained

- “-“ juxtaposition de plusieurs elements ^=> pb pour vraiment comprendre ses raisons:

madness?!?- No turning back after the fire

>« entire wordly wealth” « resigned myself to despair »

=> no turning back possible, but instead a drowning deeper in sin, madness (becausealcoholism) and evil

- « damnable » : again the religious connotation + atrocity : he knows he is a criminal“a sin”, “deadly sin”: judgement => remorse?

even “Most Merciful…God”: majuscules et superlatif pour intensifier la puissance et

grandeur d’âme de Dieu => rend encore plus imptt crime que pardonnerait pas



CCL = Suspense

Threshold: fantastic evil (personified) cat or alcohol-diseases?The fantastic, he asserts, explores the indefinite boundary between the real and the supernatural. The fantastic

is a literary category that contains elements of both the rational and the irrational. One of the fantastic

elements in “The Black Cat” is the existence of the second cat—with the changing shape of its white fur and its

appearance on the corpse behind the wall. These plot twists challenge reality, but they do not completelysubstitute a supernatural explanation for a logical one. It is possible that the plot twists derive only from the

insanity of the narrator. As a result, the plot twists, like the fantastic, hover between the real and thesupernatural. The resolution of the story is both rationally possible and tremendously unlikely; the cat could

inhabit the basement walls, but it is difficult to believe that it would remain silently in the wall for a long time

or go unnoticed by the overly meticulous narrator

> Cat= « he » not « it » at the beginning => personification => love + confused reality

“inflicted” = vb de volonté pas instinct du chat => evil cat imagined

“wound” “teeth” => humanized still

The title only references one black cat. Does this mean there is only one cat in the story? Is the second

cat a kind of Pet Sematary version of Pluto? Is the second cat Pluto the undead? Or, is it possible that Pluto didn't really die? In that last scenario Pluto somehow survives the hanging and escapes

>“reason” = hides the meaning: alcohol’s effect gone: ‘-‘ explicite “reason” = “slept off the fumes”

Stripped to bare bones, it's a story about domestic violence and brutal murder. It's the death-row confession of

nameless man who destroys himself, his wife, and his pets. As is often the case with real life murderers, we

can't pinpoint exactly why he went out of control. The supernatural elements of "The Black Cat" leave open thequestion of how much is real, how much can be rationally explained, and how much is a product of the

narrator's imagination. This mystery is part of what has kept "The Black Cat" in circulation for over a 160years.

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PLAN détaillé THE BLACK CAT