Alcoholism In Edgar Allan Poes The Black Cat - 1197 Words

Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"The Black Cat† is a tale of a man who suffers from alcoholism. In this tale the protagonist whose name is never revealed is deranged by his addiction. The story begins with the narrator describing his love for all his pets. He says â€Å"I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them.† (Poe p.1) Although, the narrators’ personality alters when his beloved black cat becomes a falling victim to his atrocity. After arriving home intoxicated one night the man seized his cat Pluto and proceeded to carve out one of the cats’ eyes from the socket. As he awoke the next morning to this frightful†¦show more content†¦The narrator said, â€Å"This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and, in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure. â€Å"(Poe p.2) in hopes to persuade the reader to believe in his innocence, and sincerity. The protagonist faces an internal conflict of his sanity vs. his alcoholism. The anonymous narrator also is in external conflict with Pluto because the cat symbolizes the struggle the narrator consistently endures in his alcoholism. Initially the narrator was very fond and had an â€Å"intensity of gratification† for his cat Pluto, but this could be perceived as the pleasure that alcohol brings when someone has the idea of drinking being â€Å"fun†. However, as the narrators’ feelings towards Pluto grow more resentful, and angry that can be attributed to the intense decline of his personality once he starts to become more of an alcoholic. Based on the validity of this assumption, then the central idea directly links to Pluto’s symbolism because the narrator mistreating the cat represents how the narrator is also ill-treating himself with alcohol. Accordingly, the many terrifying d eeds the narrator pursued upon Pluto illustrated the insanity that has been induced on the narrator due to the ill-effects of his alcoholism. While the narrators’ sanity continues to deteriorate, he committed anotherShow MoreRelatedAn Analysis Of Edgar Allan Poe s The Black Cat 1650 Words   |  7 PagesBrittany White Mrs. Bey English 1101 1 April 2015 A Day in the Life Edgar Allan Poe is a very talked about writer. He has a dark, mysterious, gothic writing style. Poe was a troubled man that struggled in a lot of different areas in his life. It is believed that all of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories were connected to his tragic life events. â€Å"The Black Cat† is one of Edgar’s well-known short stories. 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