final eng 111

2

Engl 111

Durham Tech Community College

English 111

November 26, 2025

Literary Analysis of The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat follows a narrator who begins telling his story as an animal lover but slowly becomes violent and unstable due to alcoholism. The story presents several major themes, which include guilt, madness, supernaturalism, self-destruction, and alcoholism. The plot of the story focuses on the narrator's transformation from being a gentle man to someone who abuses his pet, Pluto, and ends up killing his wife. The narrator mentions starting to abuse alcohol, which led to self-destruction, where he cuts the cat's eye in drunken rage, eventually hangs the cat, and his house then burns down the same night, leaving him haunted by guilt. He later discovers another black cat with one eye and grows to hate it, and in another fit of anger, he tries to kill it, but ends up killing his wife and hiding her body in a cell wall. The cat ends up exposing him when it cries out during the police investigation. These key events present the themes while also using the black cat as a symbol for guilt, justice, and superstition.

Some questions that arise while reading the story include: 1) How did 19th 19th-century audience understand the connection between moral corruption and alcoholism as one of the themes Poe often wrote about? 2) How does the author’s own life, especially his struggle with alcohol, influence the narrator’s voice and unreliability? 3). Is the "second cat" the narrator imagining the similarities with the first one because of guilt, or is it meant to be supernatural?

Significant passages that helped understand the overall story include: 1) “My soul seemed to fly from my body. I took a small knife…with one quick movement I cut out one of its fear-filled eyes!” (Poe, 1843). This moment shows the narrator's sudden loss of control, raising the question. Is he sane or already unreliable? 2). "One day, in cold blood, I tied a strong rope around the cat’s neck…I hung it because I knew it had loved me” (Poe, 1843). This portrays the theme of self-destruction behavior and guilt, but why does he harm the thing that loves him the most? 3). “On the body’s head, its one eye filled with fire, its wide open mouth the color of blood, sat the cat, crying out its revenge!” (Poe, 1843. This passage gives a mix of horror and supernatural events. Is it literally happening, or is the narrator imagining it under stress?

Reference

J W Rinzler (2016). Riddle of the Black Cat--Animated Edgar Allan Poe Short. YouTube. https://youtu.be/nzPjlukF54o?si=22_XxEB_JpeV_vs4

Poe, E. A. (1843).  The Black Cat.

PM

Part A

Revision for purpose in literary analysis (I attached the assignment you did for me that is relative to this assignment). I received a 70 percent. You will need to do redo this assignment based on the feedback below. This assignment has three parts. Part B is the rewriting of the document for submission and Part A are the questions that you need to answer. Part C I attached.

Feedback: Dec 3 at 2pm

I will grade 50% for your original interpretation of Poe's text and 50% for the clarity with which you lay out the paragraphs (unity and coherence as discussed).

· please review the assignment description for prewriting and planning

· I can see the beginnings of close readings but no real language analysis

· moral corruption is not a theme; it is a trope. it is something happening, being represented. it is not a debatable, real-world question as required

· you are relying on the text too much because you are following what happens (trope) more than how what happens helps me to think about a real-world problem (theme)

· feel free to walk me through your process here if you want more help

· the last paragraph is not addressing the debatable question, as required, in the real world

Important: don't use this as a simple checklist but rather PROVE to yourself that you have done everything that you can or else plan changes; the point of revision is change and not being cleared. You can get better! Don't draft here but JUST PLAN.

You used three questions in the planning document for the literary analysis. We now turn these into three questions to answer for revision planning (for purpose). Answer these questions, using the notes that you prepared and or adding detail as needed, answering each in the equivalent of a small paragraph with claim, evidence, and explanation (make a claim and prove it):

1. how do you raise a theme from a single passage or portion of text?

    * what part of the text do you work with?

     * how do you analyze the language as language, paying attention to choices made by author?

     * what theme do you raise, and how does it relate to the text that you paid attention to?

2. how does the rest of the text help you to refine your theme?

   * what other (2-4) parts of the text do you work with

   * how do you use these parts to refine, narrow, clarify your theme (the same as in 1)?

3. what is the ultimate significance of your theme, or how do you come to understand the world differently because of it?

   * how does your understanding or experience relate to the text's treatment of the theme, and why does this connection matter either personally or socially? 

Part B

Rewrite the black cat essay and use the above

2

Engl 111

Durham Tech Community College

English 111

November 26, 2025

Literary Analysis of The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat follows a narrator who begins telling his story as an animal lover but slowly becomes violent and unstable due to alcoholism. The story presents several major themes, which include guilt, madness, supernaturalism, self-destruction, and alcoholism. The plot of the story focuses on the narrator's transformation from being a gentle man to someone who abuses his pet, Pluto, and ends up killing his wife. The narrator mentions starting to abuse alcohol, which led to self-destruction, where he cuts the cat's eye in drunken rage, eventually hangs the cat, and his house then burns down the same night, leaving him haunted by guilt. He later discovers another black cat with one eye and grows to hate it, and in another fit of anger, he tries to kill it, but ends up killing his wife and hiding her body in a cell wall. The cat ends up exposing him when it cries out during the police investigation. These key events present the themes while also using the black cat as a symbol for guilt, justice, and superstition.

Some questions that arise while reading the story include: 1) How did 19th 19th-century audience understand the connection between moral corruption and alcoholism as one of the themes Poe often wrote about? 2) How does the author’s own life, especially his struggle with alcohol, influence the narrator’s voice and unreliability? 3). Is the "second cat" the narrator imagining the similarities with the first one because of guilt, or is it meant to be supernatural?

Significant passages that helped understand the overall story include: 1) “My soul seemed to fly from my body. I took a small knife…with one quick movement I cut out one of its fear-filled eyes!” (Poe, 1843). This moment shows the narrator's sudden loss of control, raising the question. Is he sane or already unreliable? 2). "One day, in cold blood, I tied a strong rope around the cat’s neck…I hung it because I knew it had loved me” (Poe, 1843). This portrays the theme of self-destruction behavior and guilt, but why does he harm the thing that loves him the most? 3). “On the body’s head, its one eye filled with fire, its wide open mouth the color of blood, sat the cat, crying out its revenge!” (Poe, 1843. This passage gives a mix of horror and supernatural events. Is it literally happening, or is the narrator imagining it under stress?

Reference

J W Rinzler (2016). Riddle of the Black Cat--Animated Edgar Allan Poe Short. YouTube. https://youtu.be/nzPjlukF54o?si=22_XxEB_JpeV_vs4

Poe, E. A. (1843).  The Black Cat.