THE BLACK

CAT
ANALYSIS
GROUP 6
Ayala Morales, Vilma Yaneth
Cerón Echegoyén, Luis Gerardo
Martínez Aurora, Débora Michelle
Mélendez Pérez, Pamela Alejandra
Santamaría Urias, Katherine Michelle
Velasco Renderos, Sara Camila
 01 Edgar allan poe
BIOGRAPHY

The black cat analysis

02
• PLOT
AGENDA •
•
TECHNIQUES
POINT OF VIEW
• CHARACTERS
• SETTING
• THEME
• SYMBOL, STYLE.
IRONY, TONE
EDGAR ALLAN POE
• Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 and passed away in
1849 at the age of 40.

• Poe's short story of "The Black Cat" was published in

The Saturday Evening Post in 1843. He was and remains
an important exponent of the American Romantic
movement.
 plot
●
1. Main events
The narrator gets married and they get a lot of pets including a black cat ‘Pluto’
● One day when he returns home drunk, he becomes violent and almost kills the cat, the
reason why the animal stops approaching him
● The narrator killed Pluto.
● Time after, he found a new cat identical to Pluto blind in one eye
● The narrator resents the new black cat because he has only one eye
● Consumed by guilt for what he has done to Pluto, he kills his wife when he is trying to
kill the new cat.
THE BLACK CAT

2. INTRODUCTION 4. CLIMAX
The nameless protagonist who is the
narrator too, begins the story talking, in a After murdering Pluto, the narrator's
position of a condemned man who will entire house burns down later that night.
die the next day as a result of a series of
events that tortured and destroyed him

plOT

3. RISING ACTIONS 5. FALLING ACTION

The rising actions of the story begin when

the protagonist starts experimenting changes After the narrator kills his wife, he starts
of humor and behavior due to his alcoholism thinking of ways to cover his crime
 6. resolution
The narrator comments on the solidity of the building and
knocks on the wall that he had built around the body of his
wife

A loud and inhuman cry fills the room. The alarmed

policeman breaks down the wall and finds the corpse of his
wife, and to the utter horror of the narrator, is the
screaming black cat.
techniques
● Foreshadowing

❑ The appearance of the image of the black cat on the narrator's wall foreshadows the animal's haunting of his steps.

❑ “Which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise” ¶3 L6-7

❑ “Even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the most Merciful and most terrible God” ¶7 L20-21

❑ The man started the tale with the phrase: ‘But to-morrow I die’¶1 L-3

● Flashback

❑ Present: “Yet, mad am I not. And very surely do I not dream. But tomorrow I die”. ¶1 L3

❑ Past: “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition”. ¶2 L1
 POINT OF VIEW

FIRST PERSON Point of view narrator

Use of pronoun ”I” First person point of view Unreliable
CHARACTERS

ROUND, DYNAMIC CHARACTERS STATIC, FLAT CHARACTERS

The narrator (Protagonist) The man’s wife

The black cat (Antagonist) The police
Pluto Servant
 setting
● 1840 Victorian era - Big house, later
moved to a smaller house

● Natural or manufactured setting?

Manufactured

● Mood -Disturbing, horrific.

 THEME
ALCOHOLISM

• Metamorphosis of the narrator due to the

consequences of alcohol addiction

• Dementia and hallucinations

• Evolution of love and hatred towards animals

SYMBOL, STYLE, IRONY, TONE
SYMBOLS
THE
BLACK
CAT
“…In speaking of his intelligence,
my wife, who at heart was not a
little
tinctured with superstition, made
frequent allusions to the ancient
popular notion, which regarded all
black cats as witches in disguise…”
¶3 L5-6-7
GALLOWS
I loathed, and dreaded, and would
have rid myself of the monster had I
dared - it was now, I say, the image of
a hideous- of a ghastly thing - of the
GALLOWS! - oh, mournful and
terrible engine of Horror and of
Crime - of Agony and of Death!...”
¶17 L6-13
CELLAR
He committed his crime in the cellar ¶19-
20
He locked the second cat with the corpse
of his wife, turning the cellar into a jail
once again. ¶27
SYMBOL, STYLE, IRONY, TONE
SYMBOLS
SCREAMING
OF A CAT
Upon its head, with red extended mouth
and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous
beast whose craft had seduced me into
murder, and whose informing voice had
consigned me to the hangman. I had
walled the monster up within the tomb!
¶27 L4-7.
CAT ON
THE WALL
The cat on the wall in the burnt house can
be considered as a symbol of the retribution
that is inflicted on the narrator, and a visual
image, too. Moreover, we can infer that this
is an original symbol. ¶8-9
STYLE
● Poe’s style is cryptic.
● Gothic genre.
● Use of supernatural elements.
“…Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the
primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or
sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man...” ¶7 L7-9.

● The sentence structure type used in this story is both simple and complex.
● He uses short sentences when he talks about his childhood: “…From my infancy I was
noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition…” ¶2 L1
● he uses longer and more complex sentences when talking about the changes that he
suffers: “…But my disease grew upon me - for what disease is like Alcohol! - and at
length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish -
even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper…” ¶4 L9-11.
● he uses figurative devices, imagery, and connotation throughout the story.
FIGURATIVE DEVICES:

“…I came to look upon it with unutterable

“…The fury of a demon instantly possessed loathing, and to flee silently from its odious
me…” (metaphor) ¶5 L3. presence, as from the breath of a pestilence…”
(simile) ¶14 L6-8.
IRONY

Dramatic
Irony of the Verbal irony
situation irony
 TONE
DARK, HORRIFIC, AND DISTURBED
MESSAGE

o The story shows us that sometimes things, in this case,

people are not always what they seem. Since the narrator
was affectionate and caring at the beginning, but deep inside
he was violent, and abusive, and he showed that part of
himself when he became alcoholic. The writer wants to give
is that to think before we act is really important since this
can bring serious consequences. For every action there is an
effect. For instance, in the story the narrator cannot escape
guilt, which is a consequence of his acts, and it does not
matter if you play the victim and blame your circumstances
to avoid being seen like the villain because the
consequences are inescapable.