Stylistic Analysis
The story under the analysis “The
Black Cat” was written by famous American writer of the XIXth century Edgar
Allan Poe.
Despite
unhappy and difficult childhood, poverty and "prickly" way to the
successful career, Edgar Poe became the remarkable representative of the
Romanticism. Poet, short-stories writer, editor and literary critic,
"father" of the detective fiction ... all this is about this unusual
person. The motives of death, mystery and macabre, irony and so specific sense
of humor not only created such an easily-recognizable author's style but also
reflected the charming mystery of the writer's soul in his literary
masterpieces. Edgar Allan Poe is known for such works as "The Murders in the Rue
Morgue", "The Oval Portrait", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The
Fall of the House of Usher", "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of
Nantucket", etc.
This story is like a
peculiar confession of a man who will be executed next morning. After taking a black cat into his house a
kind, loving and careful husband became ruthless and heartless drunkard. With
fiendish pleasure he cut the cat’s eyes and with the bitterest remorse he hung
it to the limb of tree. Having lost all his wealth and ruined the relations in
the family, the man found his soothing in another black cat. But very quickly
the new playmate changed into “the hideous beast whose craft had seduced” the
main character into committing more terrible crime.
Speaking about the main
idea of the story, I can’t but say that the
emphasize is made not only on the evil spirit of the black cats who are known
like “witches in disguise”. Of course, this theme adds more mystique to the
story and the tension is much higher. But, to my mind, the author attracts our
attention to the disease of alcoholism which destroys the personality of the
main character. Alcohol, not the black cat, is a real evil which changes the
man into the hideous beast.
From the very first
sentence of the story, the narrator prepares us for the fantastic narrative.
But the setting of the events in the given story is rather realistic and it’s
presented in quite detailed way. The descriptions of the fire and burnt house,
old and moist cellar e.g.: “The whole
house was blazing.”; “The destruction was complete.”; “Its walls were loosely
constructed.”; “the dampness of atmosphere” symbolizes the evil thoughts and feelings of the main character.
From the point of view
of presentation, it’s the first story narrative as the narrator is the
participant of the described events:
e.g. “FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about
to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief.”
“But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my
soul”
“I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a
disposition not uncongenial with my own.”
“I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife.”
“I had walled the monster up within the tomb!”
While reading the story
we get acquainted with the main character, his wife, two black cats. Also, some
servants and policemen are mentioned but the author doesn’t pay much attention
to them.
It’s necessary to remark that all minor
characters, except Pluto, don’t have names. Otherwise, the narrator tells us
quite a mysterious story about the black cat, this story can be viewed as a
terrible but a common story of an alcoholic who just blame the black cats for
all his misfortunes and his wife, quite an ordinary woman who have to suffer
from the violent husband.
The author uses both
direct and indirect characterizations to show the real portrait of the
protagonist.
At the beginning of the
story the main character is depicted as a kind and a careful person who is fond
of animals: e.g. “my tenderness of heart
was even so conspicuous”; “I was especially fond of animals”; “With them I
spend most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing
them”; “my partiality for domestic pets”.
The following comments
of the narrator clearly indicates that in time the his temperament changed radically and he became rude and
horrible person of damnable atrocity e.g.:
“I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the
feelings of others.”; “At length, I even offered her personal violence.”; “I
not only neglected, but ill-used them.”; “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.”; “…deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket”.
“Evil thoughts became my sole intimates - the darkest and most evil of
thoughts. The moodiness of my usual temper increased to hatred of all things
and of all mankind; while, from the sudden, frequent, and ungovernable
outbursts of a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself, my uncomplaining
wife, alas! was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.” once more confirm that the evil
spirit completely fascinated the protagonist’s soul.
When the narrator
informs us that “I soundly and tranquilly
slept; aye, slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul!”, we
disrespect him even much more for his severity and hard-heartedness.
On
the other hand, I’d like to point out the antagonists of the story – Pluto and another black cat. Although,
the main character is assured that only they are the reasons of his failures,
the cats are always depicted as lovely and faithful pets. The second cat even
despite the bad and savage behaviour of his master continues to love him: e.g. “It followed my footsteps with a
pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend. Whenever
I sat, it would crouch beneath my chair, or spring upon my knees, covering me
with its loathsome caresses. If I arose to walk it would get between my feet
and thus nearly throw me down, or, fastening its long and sharp claws in my
dress, clamber, in this manner, to my breast.”
The
story under the analysis starts with the introduction which prepares us to the
intrigue. The unknown author informs us that he is going to tell the common,
but at the same time, the monstrous story of his life. Then goes
exposition, due to which we get to know that the main character is at the
prison and he will be executed next morning. The plot of the story is rich
in different events which are mainly connected with a black cat. The
protagonist, his features and character changes greatly during the pages of the
story. This leads us to the most intensive part of the story – the climax which
occurs when a wailing shriek from the tomb seems to arise out of the hell. In
the denouement there is the release of the tension. The ruthless executioner
"dug the grave" by his own hands.
The
type of the speech employed by the author of the analyzed story is a
combination of a peculiar monologue of the main character who is telling his
wild and homely narrative (e.g. For the
most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect
nor solicit belief), narration and description.
The
given extract is rather a narration than a description.
Narration
is used by the author to express the sequence of the events: e.g. “One night, returning home, much
intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided
my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a
slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly
possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to
take its flight from my body and a more than fiendish malevolence,
gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket
a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately
cut one of its eyes from the socket! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen
the damnable atrocity.”
Cases
of description help not only to depict the setting of the events and the
characters of the story but also to render
the atmosphere of the story:
e.g.: “This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely
black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree… Pluto had not a white hair upon
any portion of his body”.
“It was a black cat - a very large one - fully as large as Pluto …; but
this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the
whole region of the breast.”
“Its walls were loosely constructed, and had lately been plastered
throughout with a rough plaster, which the dampness of the atmosphere had
prevented from hardening. Moreover, in one of the walls was a projection,
caused by a false chimney, or fireplace, that had been filled up, and made to
resemble the red of the cellar.”
It’s necessary to remark that the vocabulary
of the story is rather formal and high-flown. The common words like e.g. mad; narrative; tenderness; character;
love; cat; reflection is the dominant part of the story and create a
true-to-life realistic atmosphere of the events of the passage under analysis. The
narrator’s speech is rich in religious terms such as e.g.: Fiend Intemperance; demon; fiendish malevolence; sin; immortal soul;
evil; High God; demonical which indicate that the character is
well-informed in this sphere. Some poetic words as e.g.: Alas!; unburthen my soul help to create elevated tonality. The
usage of the periphrasis e.g. I…buried the axe in her brain and synecdoche
like e.g.: a dozen stout arms were
toiling at the wall makes the language of the story more
cultivated.
To
create and present a real and bright portrait of the characters and create a
solemn tone of the story, the author uses a great variety of lexical expressive
means and stylistic devices.
The
choice of such epithets as e.g.: conspicuous tenderness; unselfish and
self-sacrificing love; old heart; irrevocable overthrow; primitive impulses;
cool blood; dark deed; a deadly sin; immortal soul employed by the narrator
to describe the changes which happened in the protagonist’s character.
The
epithets like e.g.: hideous and ghastly thing; mournful and terrible engine; the
bitterest remorse; Fiend Intemperance; fiendish malevolence; damnable atrocity;
evil thoughts; sagacious cat; demoniacal
interference are used to emphasize darkness, mysterious and demoniacal
features of the story.
Due to such epithets as e.g.: wild narrative; a feeble and equivocal feeling the atmosphere
of madness and sickness is represented.
The epithets e.g.: Merciful God;
Terrible God; High God expose the main character’s attitude towards
religion and fear against the God’s punishment.
The ancient popular
belief about the evil spirits of the antagonist of the story is confirmed by such a simile e.g.: All black cats
as witches in disguise.
“The collapse of the
protagonist’s soul” is revealed through the following simile e.g.: the spirit of
PERVERSENESS as if my final and irrevocable overthrow.
The case of simile is also used in the final part
of the story to intensify the tension of the events: e.g.: a cry…like the sobbing of a child.
The story under the
analysis is rich in metaphors. Metaphors
which are used to depict the changes of the inner world of the character and
his behaviour with others can be found in such cases as:
e.g. “This peculiarity of character grew with my growth.”
“The fury of a demon instantly possessed me.”
“…and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.”
“Many projects entered my mind.”
“…and I resigned myself thenceforward to despair.”
“But at length reflection came to my aid.”
The metaphor e.g.: The corpse … stood erect before the eyes of the spectator is used to emphasize the tragedy of the
denouement of the cruel murder.
The narrator’s
detestation and confidence that only the black cat is guilty of all sins is
sees from the use of such metaphors:
e.g. “the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder…”
“the hideous beast whose … whose informing voice had consigned me to the
hangman”
“I had walled the monster up within the tomb!”
Also, there are several
cases of personification like e.g.: Horror. PERVERSENESS. Gin. Rum.
Reason. GALLOWS! Crime. Agony. Death. Rest. Night-Mare. There is no doubt,
that by using this variety of metaphor, the author points our attention to some
important, to his point of view, aspects.
The
case of litotes e.g.: I married early, and
was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own conveys the character’s sincere happiness
that his wife share his love for pets.
Another
case of litotes e.g.: They left no nook or corner unexplored gives rise to the protagonist’s doubts that his crime
would be once cleared.
The
brilliant examples of antitheses underline
not only the man’s contradictory feelings during his unusual and horrible
narrative e.g. most wild, yet most homely
narrative but, in the other case,
the emphasize is made on the discrepant creature of God as it’s depicted in the
story e.g. Most Merciful and Most
Terrible God.
Speaking about the gradation of the tension,
it’s necessary to point out several cases of climax:
e.g. “these events have terrified - have tortured - have destroyed me.”
“…by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child,
and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly
anomalous and inhuman - a howl - a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of
triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the
throats of the dammed in their agony and of the demons that exult in the
damnation.”
“…but gradually - very gradually - I came to look upon it with
unutterable loathing, and to flee silently from its odious presence, as from
the breath of a pestilence.”
“The moodiness of my usual temper increased to hatred of all things and
of all mankind; while, from the sudden, frequent, and ungovernable outbursts
of a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself, my uncomplaining wife,
alas! was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.”
The release of the tension is
represented by the following example of anticlimax
e.g.: The reader will remember that this
mark, although large, had been originally very indefinite; but, by slow
degrees - degrees nearly imperceptible, and which for a long time my Reason
struggled to reject as fanciful - it had, at length, assumed a rigorous distinctness
of outline.
The use of anaphoric repetitions attracts the
reader’s attention and shows the state of mind of the character:
e.g. “Some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm
to the common-place – some intellect more calm, more logical, and far
less excitable than my own.”
“I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the
damnable atrocity.”
“These walls are you going, gentlemen? – these walls are
solidly put together…”
“I am almost ashamed to own - yes,
even in this felon's cell, I am almost ashamed to own - that the terror
and horror with which the animal inspired me, had been heightened by one of the
merest chimaeras it would be possible to conceive.”
The story is rich in the
examples of ordinary repetitions:
e.g.: “I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more
regardless of the feelings of others.”
“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.”
“… I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of
remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty…”
“The walls, with one exception, had fallen in. This exception
was found in a compartment wall, not very thick, which stood about the middle
of the house, and against which had rested the head of my bed.”
“It was a black cat - a very large one - fully as large as
Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one.”
“This dread was not exactly a dread of physical evil - and
yet I should be at a loss how otherwise to define it.”
“Evil thoughts became my sole intimates - the darkest and most
evil of thoughts.”
“And a brute beast - whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed
- a brute beast to work out for me - for me a man, fashioned in the
image of the High God - so much of insufferable wo!”
The chain repetition e.g. By the
bye, gentlemen, this - this is a very well constructed house emphasizes the emotiveness of the
protagonist.
The
parallel construction e.g.: “One morning, in cool blood, I slipped
a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; - hung it with the
tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; -
hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given
me no reason of offence; - hung it because I knew that in so doing I was
committing a sin - a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to
place it - if such a thing wore possible - even beyond the reach of the
infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God” makes the thoughts of the character clearer,
besides such an arrangement lends an unmistakable eloquence and rhythm.
The
utterance sounds more rhythmical due to the usage of polysyndeton:
e.g. “ It was now the representation of an object that I shudder to name
- and for this, above all, 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!”
The measured, energetic,
dynamic narrative is achieved by the
cases of asyndeton:
e.g.: “I took from my
waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat.”
“I blush, I burn, I shudder…”
“It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself - to offer
violence to its own nature - to do wrong for the wrong's sake only - that urged
me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the
unoffending brute.”
“Upon my touching him, he immediately arose, purred loudly, rubbed
against my hand, and appeared delighted with my notice.”
“One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung
it to the limb of a tree; - hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and
with the bitterest remorse at my heart; - hung it because I knew that it had
loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; - hung it
because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin - a deadly sin that
would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it - if such a thing wore
possible - even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and
Most Terrible God.”
In
some cases, the narrator makes the emphasize on the utterance by using enumerations:
e.g.: “We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey,
and a cat.”
“It was with great difficulty that my wife, a servant, and myself,
made our escape from the conflagration.”
“Having procured mortar, sand, and hair, with every possible
precaution, I prepared a plaster which could not be distinguished from the
old.”
The idea expressed trough the inversion e.g. Yet, mad am I not - and very surely do I not dream is to show the emotional state of the
character.
Also, it’s necessary to mention
several cases of graphic devices like punctuation. This helps to reveal the author’s attitude to
the utterance and make the character’s speech more emotional and
rhythmico-melodious:
e.g. “In their consequences,
these events have terrified – have tortured – have destroyed me.”
“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.”
“It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself – to offer
violence to its own nature – to do wrong for the wrong's sake only – that urged
me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the
unoffending brute.”
“One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung
it to the limb of a tree; – hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and
with the bitterest remorse at my heart; – hung it because I knew that it had
loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; – hung it
because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin – a deadly sin that
would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it – if such a thing wore
possible – even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and
Most Terrible God.”
Summing up the analysis
of the given story, I’d like to say that Edgar Allan Poe brilliantly uses a
great variety of lexical expressive
means and stylistic devices like similes, epithets, metaphors, climax, asyndeton
and polysyndeton, frequent repetitions
which help to reveal the real feelings of the main character and create
a true-to-life but at the same time mysterious atmosphere of the story.
