‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ Oral Commentary

Structure to use

Intro discussing the story linking it to the gothic genre and poes dramatic intentions
and what i liked about the text and used

what my play is about and looked like the stage type is (end on) 3 big moments that
you focuses on analysis the text the eye, unreliable narrator and the characters

Key moment poes text did this and therefore my performance did this how I did this
in performance face, body ,voice and space any props and set we used (centre
stage, going up onto a rostra), lighting sound always linking back to the text.
Conclude by evaluating, how effective that scene was
X3

Critically Reflect the whole piece go back mine and poes intentions and have i
achieved , what i would do to improve it furthermore inventive about the costumes
written in the victorian era so could of had more costume and props to reflect the
victorian era

Edgar Allen Poe is best known for his adoption of the Gothic genre and effectively
explores the themes of madness and death in his short stories and poems. The two
stories which I used as my initial stimulus are “The black cat” and “The Tell-Tale
Heart ''. Both stories incorporate this idea of a psychotic character which continues to
try and rationalise his insanity. “The Black Cat'' focuses on a man that is an insane
alcoholic and kills his cat which then haunts him causing him to go even more mad
likewise in “the tell tale heart” a man stalks an old man because he is obsessed with
the old man “vulture eye” (dehumanising) which is the driving force to why he kills
the old man. I decided to incorporate both the “The Black Cat'' and “The Tell-Tale
Heart '' as I was instantly drawn to the idea of the first-person narrative in both
stories as it made me feel awfully uncomfortable and question the narrator’s motives
leaving me eager to know more about the insanity and the characters plagued mind
of love, loath and dread. The central theme in both stories is the ongoing conflict
between rationality and irrationality which makes me as a reader inclined to want to
explore his mind. Furthermore, the unreliability of the narrator is evident throughout
the text and is shown through things such as the repetition, the shift in pace as well
as the narrator’s constant need to reassure himself of his sanity through him
repeatedly saying “he is not mad”. Between the two stories and the Artaudian
immersive performance that I experienced with my school I was inspired to explore
the unreliable, first-person narrative and the deterioration of the character’s mind. To
do this my group and I decided to each play the role of the narrator but through each
of his three different personas that are evident in both stories; love, loath and dread
part of the narrator loves the cat but then ended up loathing the cat because the cat
lashed out at the narrator and the final persona is him feeling guilt to the fact that he
killed the cat and created this through a story following the processes of him killing
the cat/the old man and the events that lead up to him going insane. The set that we
used was end on stage which allowed us to break the 4th wall during our
performance to enhance the experience of the audience.

● Costumes
● Music/sounds
● Dance

● Evaluate Poe and how you informed this in your text

● Three people + demonic symbol

● Analysie the eye

● The theme of madness (dance/ music)
● Alcoholism

Poe’s use of the unreliable narrator in both ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’
is an effective dramatic device to use as we witness the unfolding of the narrator’s
distorted thoughts and feelings throughout the short story. I was inspired by this and
decided to emphasize the use of first person narrative in the performance to explore
the reasons for killing the old man. Poe created tension in the text by using the first
person narrative from the beginning in media res. When I was playing the role of the
narrator through the perspective of loathing the old man/cat I took the moments from
the text I thought were effective in showing the narrator's anger. I incorporated this in
my performance by breaking the 4th wall and repeating “you fancy me mad” as I
repeated this line while pacing back and forward in the audience. I ensured that I
held eye contact with the audience with my eyebrows furrowed to show that I
urgently wanted to express my anger. I included moments where I slowed the pace
by occasionally pausing for a few seconds holding eye contact with an audience
member then randomly frantically screaming the line again to make the audience
unsettled and frightened and ensure the audience understood how mad and insane
this character is. I stressed the word “fancy” and over stretched the vowel sounds so
that the word becomes uncomfortable which is strengthened by the eye contact I
made with the audience. This successfully allowed the audience to be able to grasp
an insight into the narrator’s chaotic mind resulting in them feeling uneasy which is
the key dramatic intention in this performance. Breaking the 4th wall during our
performance was an extremely effective method as this made the performance
interactive enhancing the feelings felt by the audience as they were experiencing the
narrator's chaotic mind first hand.
Poe has a unique way of exploring the theme of madness which is a shared
characteristic in both ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Tell Tale Heart’. Madness is
represented in both ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’ through the narrators’
unreasonable rationality that he uses to justify murdering the old man/cat. Being
angered by the old man’s eye is an insufficient reason for the narrator to want to kill
him, which proves that he is insane. Poe also stresses the narrators madness
through the fact that he plans the murder for a week. I was inspired by this and
emphasized the narrator's insanity by saying the line “oh you would have laughed to
see how cunningly I hung it'' very slowly and stressing the “ingly” sound to make the
audience feel unsettled to how normalised it is for me to be talking about me
murdering the old man/cat the use of the adverb “cunningly” also shows how proud
he was of killing the cat/old man. I incorporated in my performance the song
“madness'' by Ruelle' 'in which I choreographed a dance to show the process of
killing the old man/cat, the use of the music symbolizes the fact that killing the old
man/cat is his tipping point in his mental sanity and he goes completely insane there
were moments within the music where it almost sounded like a heartbeat reflecting
the heartbeat sound that the narrator heard in the tell-tale heart that made the
narrator insane.

The heart beat sound in Poe’s short stories becomes a dramatic symbol of the
narrator's intense feelings of guilt over the macabre act that he has committed.