The Black Cat Analysis

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Hayes 1 Jennifer Hayes Vicky Conners English 2130 24 January 2018 The Darkest Tail An accidental crime takes place in a dark cellar of an old building with steep stairs. An annoying black cat with a gallowed white spot highlighted, haunting a sinful man. The narrator in "The Black Cat," by Edgar Allan Poe in his cellar basement accompanied by his wife and nuisance black cat. The narrator is annoyed at the black cat because he is consistently following him around. He had enough of the cat trailing his every move and picked up an axe with the intent to kill the cat, but instead, his wife blocked the axe from hitting the cat. Then, the narrator took the axe and killed his wife with a blow to the brain. Many factors including his mind being…show more content…
Alcohol consumption can allow people to commit acts that they otherwise would not engage. The narrator was mentally deranged from his addiction. Unfortunately, the black cat had angered the narrator causing him to raise an axe with the intention of killing it. His wife decided to block it, and because of his unbalanced mind, he became, "goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the ax in her brain" (Poe 723). The narrator explains his rage as "more than demoniacal," specifying that an uncontrollable mentality came over him causing the murderous…show more content…
The narrator had committed some hateful acts during his time under the bottle, causing his mind to feel complete guilt for his sins. The black cat was very persistent and determined to drive the man crazy. "It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend" (Poe 722). Later the narrator describes his mind close to insanity when he states, "evil thoughts became my sole intimates-the darkest and most evil of thoughts" (722). This cat was haunting him and was driving his mind crazy. In a legal case, he could plead insanity, and the jury could agree that his wife's death was accidental and not

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