The historical meanings behind Edgar Allan Poe "Black Cat"
-He was born: on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, and died: on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an American, short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor. He wrote some of the most famous works, like: "Macabre", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "Detective Theory, "Tales of Horror", and "The Raven". He is the son of Elizabeth Arnold Poe, an English-born actress, and a Baltimore actor named David Poe, Jr. When his mother died, he was taken in by a Richmond merchant named John Allan, who was presumed to be his godfather and his barren wife. In 1826 and 11 months in he went to school at the University of Virginia. He had a gambling problem which led to him not being able to go back to school. He later got engaged to a woman named Sarah Elmira Royster. In 1827 he went to Boston to publish a Pamphelt of Youthful Byronic poems, like "Tamerlane," and other poems. He joined the army due to him going through poverty, and went under the name "Edgar A. Perry". After being released from the army due to his foster mother, he published a new volume in Baltimore called "Al Aaraaf",
"Tamerlane", and "Minor Poems". In the year 1847 in January, Poe's wife Sarah died, a year later he visited Providence, Rhode Island, to try and win over a female poet named Sarah Helen Whitman, and they had a short engagement. He was then involved in a friendly affair with two women named Annie Richmond and Sarah Anna Lewis. Sarah Anna Lewis had helped him with finance. Since he was involved with the three women, he made tributes to all of them. He was then engaged to Elmira Royster, who then became a Mrs. Shelton a widow.
"The Black Cat" written by: Edgar Allan
This story was published in an American magazine "The Saturday Evening Post in 1843". The reaction to the piece was met with great interest and was popular. It was compared to another piece written by Poe called "The Tell-Tale Heart", this piece was similar in terms of the theme and narrative and it was also published in 1843.
The Different Meanings Behind "The Black Cat"
After researching, I have come to some conclusions on the different meanings behind "The Black Cat". Some people say that the story explores Poe's personal struggle with alcohol abuse and how it had dangerous effects. The story was made to tie excessive drinking to violence and insanity through the narrator. Poe's character clashes between good and evil in humanity, for example, the impulse of going 
through with committing violent acts. This story was published near the end of the Gothic period, which went on from the late 18th century through the 19th century. Gothic fiction focused mainly on terror, isolation, horror, awe, madness, and death. "The Black Cat" is a good example of gothic fiction as it revolves around being morbid and horrifying. This story was published and written during the period of American Romanticism it was also published during the Victorian era a common time for social repression and conformity.
Another meaning I came across was how "The Black Cat" reflected on civil war slavery. In the pre-Civil War era, people attempted to make sense of the stories' violent plots by pointing out the flaws in human spirituality and the "supernatural undertone" which is in most of all of his works. But by recognizing the differences between the Southern practice of slavery and the different points that resided in "The Black Cat" readers came to the conclusion that there were deeper meanings behind the story, some say that the story portrays the injustices of slavery and how it condemned the South.
As I was doing a little more digging into the historical meanings behind "The Black Cat" I came across a man named, George Stebbins. He lived in Northfield, Massachusetts where he discovered bones after tearing down his stone wall in the cellar. The bones were packed together in a space that was three feet, and the body was dismembered. He had written to a news outlet, that the wall looked like it was
removed, and the wall itself did not look like the work of a workman. He believed the body had been placed in the wall by someone who didn't know how to build stone or someone that was in a hurry. The bones were in good condition almost to a point of no damage or decay, some physicians that were brought to check on the body had concluded that the bones belonged to a woman around the ages of 16 or 20 when she died, it also showed signs of "foul play". On the back of the female's skull, there was a hole the size of a bullet, indicating that she died by being shot. The body was then assumably identified as a woman whose last name ended with Kendall, who disappeared around the Northfield area 2 decades earlier. People thought she had drowned in a river but her body was never found, and there was a rumor about a man named Mallory, who was held responsible. serving time in Vermont State Prison.
As Edgar Allan Poe got wind of this news, he came up with one of the most brilliant stories that are read in our generation, one of them being "The Black Cat", he turned the news of the identified body into a gothic tale filled with horror, guilt, and depravity. The story was then published, in August of 1843 in the "Saturday Evening Post". A year after George Stebbins dug up the body. The story is considered a "Poe Classic", upon writing his story he changed the names of the women, places, and detectives. It was later then discovered that the man who was convicted for murdering Kendall was only 12 years old around the time of her disappearance and would not have been the person to commit the crime, especially since they had no proof.
The last piece of research that I found was the theory that the narrator suffered from alcoholism which gave him delusions and uncontrollable and destructive/impulsive behavior. The theory was that the narrator showed signs of having schizophrenia. The cat was an obsession he had which brought him to the point of insanity. Because he was an alcoholic he had severe delusions, one of those delusions happened to be the black cat, also known as Pluto. The wife seemed to be an enabler because she put up with his abusive behavior, the thing that angered the narrator the most was the lack of reaction from the wife when he did abuse her. The mental health of the narrator declines more and more as the story goes on, which he blames on the 
alcohol. Although the narrator doesn't seem to notice that his mental stability is slowly declining. He made a place in his alcoholic-driven memory where it is only good and "wholesome". He recalled past memories that weren't used in real-time, he also confessed to murdering with some evidence of his delusions becoming paranoia. But because of his mind being corrupted by the alcohol and his mental illness, he was led down a path of murderous violence. Note that the day he killed Pluto is the day the house was set on fire, the theory behind this is that he may have caused the fire himself.
Eventually, he ends up killing his wife. blaming it on the black cat. And as the fondness that was held for the black cat disappears his feelings for it starts turning into annoyance and hatred, the second "Black Cat" with a white birthmark, which supposedly showed an image of the "hangman's noose", although the birthmark could have just been made up due to the narrator's delusions. Poe himself said that the narrator of the story was suffering from a disease called "Monomania" which is morbid irritability of the properties of the mind. The narrator had sequences of hallucinations that started off with the image of the giant cat that was in the fire, he stated that the fire
left an imprint of Pluto hanging by the noose. Hallucinations like these happen when the schizophrenic's illness has gone beyond the point of being sane. He justified his actions of killing the cat by saying that it was evil. His obsession with the black cat had a serious effect on his mental health. He started hearing voices, and the"Evil thoughts" pushed him into complete madness, hence killing his wife with an axe to the brain, as his sanity slowly slips from his grasp his chance of getting away with the crime doubled. As he leads the police, who are well familiar with his abnormal behavior, to his wife's body, he tries to blame "the cat" for murdering her. The last hallucinating delusion he had caused him to see the second cat sitting on top of his wife's body looking at him with a red mouth that extended and eyes that were on fire.
Down below is a link to an audiobook if you would like to check out the story "The Black Cat".
Sources
"The Black Cat- History of the Text".Enotes Publishing Editorial. Enotes Editorial. Enotes.com. Assessed 7 April 2023. The Black Cat History of the Text - eNotes.com
Walker, Hannah. "The Black Cat:" A Reflection of Pre-Civil War Slavery". BYU ScholarsArchieve. ScholarsArchive. 19 March 2015. BYU ScholarsArchive - BYU English Symposium: “The Black Cat:” A Reflection of Pre-Civil War Slavery. Assessed 7 April 2023.
Jobb, Dean. “The Strange Real-Life Mystery behind Edgar Allan Poe's ‘The Black Cat.’”.CrimeReads. CrimeReads. 10 Feb. 2023. The Strange Real-Life Mystery Behind Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” ‹ CrimeReads.
English, VOA Learning. “'The Black Cat,' by Edgar Allan Poe.”.VOA. VOA - Voice of America English News.14 May 2021. 'The Black Cat,' by Edgar Allan Poe (voanews.com). -Audiobook
“‘The Black Cat’ and the Decrepit Realm of the Insane.”. The Appeal To Safety LLC. The Appeal to Safety LLC. 3 Jan. 2023. “The Black Cat” and the Decrepit Realm of the Insane – The Appeal To Safety LLC (theappealtoall.com).
Comments
Post a Comment