Protagonist: The protagonist of “The Black Cat” is also
the narrator
. The character, who remains unnamed, understands the madness of his tale but tells it anyway. His guiding characteristic is his deep-seated rage, exaggerated by alcohol abuse, and violent outbreaks.
What did the narrator do in the Black Cat?
The story’s narrator is an animal lover who, as
he descends into alcoholism and perverse violence, begins mistreating his wife and his black cat
Pluto. When Pluto attacks him in self-defense one night, he seizes the cat in a fury, cuts out one of its eyes, and hangs it.
What did the black cat do?
In Germany, some believe that black cats crossing a person’s path from right to left, is a bad omen, but from left to right, the cat is granting favorable times. The black cat in folklore has been able
to change into human shape to act as a spy or courier for witches or demons
.
What is the main conflict in the Black Cat?
The conflict in the story is
an internal, person versus self conflict
. The narrator attempts to avoid harming the second black cat, but he “soon found a dislike to it arising within (him)…
Does the man in the black cat kill his wife?
His instability due to his fear of the cat causes the narrator to pick up an axe and attempt to kill it. However,
his wife stops him from delivering the fatal blow
. The narrator, experiencing “a rage more than demoniacal,” turns the axe on his wife, burying it in her brain and killing her.
Why did the narrator feel guilty?
Once he cuts out Pluto’s eye in a fit of rage, he decides that he must hang the cat. This is not to put the cat out of its misery but in fact is to damn himself. The narrator feels so guilty that
he feels the need to place his soul beyond any hope of mercy
.
At what point in the story does the falling action of The Black Cat?
THE FALLING ACTON IN A SROY ARE THE EVENTS AFTER THE CLIMAX THAT LEAD TO THE RESOLUTION. The falling actions for this story would be that
after the protagonist kills his wife and buries her in the wall he does not see tat cat for some time
, and he feels very at peace with himself.
How is the ending of The Black Cat ironic?
A final, horrifying touch of irony happens
when the narrator tries to murder his cat with an ax. She grabs the ax to stop him
, assuming that she will be safe from harm. … The irony here is that while trying to save the life of the cat, she loses her own.
Is the narrator insane in The Black Cat?
At the beginning of the story, the narrator seemed sane. He said that he loved animals, and that he and his wife had many. Through the story though, it is evident to the reader that the narrator is much less sane than what they first thought. He comes home drunk and crazy and harms those around while sparing the cat.
What does Poe do to reveal character in the story?
Poe reveals the main character—the unnamed first-person narrator—
through the narrator’s inner thoughts and external speech
.
What is the climax of the story The Black Cat?
Climax. The cat follows the narrator home. …
One day, on the way to the cellar, the cat trips the narrator on the stairs and he raises an axe to kill him; he is stopped by his wife, and in a rage, he kills her with the axe instead.
Why did the narrator cut out Pluto’s eye?
The narrator cut out the cat’s eye
because he was intoxicated
. … The narrator hanged the cat because he was crazy and he said he did it because the loved the cat and because the cat never did anything to him. What happened the night he hanged Pluto?
How would you describe the narrator of the story The Black Cat What is his conflict?
Examples of Literary Conflict in “The Black Cat”
The narrator is
battling alcoholism
, which also sends him into rages of violence against his pets and his wife. After he gouges Pluto’s eye, he is wracked with guilt, which eventually turns to anger, leading him to hang Pluto.
How did the police find his wife body the black cat?
He put her body in a wall of the cellar and built a new plaster wall in front of the body. How did the police discover the body? The second black cat had also been trapped inside the plaster wall with the body. When the narrator rapped on the new wall, the cat let out a howl, giving away the location of the body.
What blindness did the narrator suffer from in the Black Cat?
Symbols of perception include the narrator’s particular mutilation of Pluto, for like his pet, the narrator is
half-blind
, not only in the past, in the story he relates, but also in the present, when he still cannot understand what it all means.
Why did the narrator confess?
He doesn’t want to show any suspicion. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” chuckles at the old man’s fear. … Why does the narrator finally confess to the murder?
He hears the heart pound and he thinks that the police can hear it but aren’t tell.
Does the narrator in the black cat feel remorse?
He does express remorse for his treatment of
his wife and the cat, but here at the end, as we said, he blames the cat. He is “unbearthening” his soul by admitting that he blames the cat. He feels “almost ashamed” to admit his beliefs about the cat, and just how afraid he was of the animal (20).
Is the narrator in The Black Cat a psychopath?
In “The Black Cat,” Poe created a
narrator who lacks remorse, empathy
, and a conscience, a character who deceives and manipulates those around him because of an impulsive, egocentric personality known as psychopathy.
What did the narrator do after he committed the crime?
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He is repulsed by the eye of his housemate, an old man, and believes that it can see into and read his mind. This terrifies him, and one night, when the old man wakes up, the narrator kills him. He then
proceeds to dismember the old man’s body
and hide it under the floorboards.
What role does the wife play in The Black Cat?
The
wife of the narrator of
“The Black Cat,” she shares his love of animals and fills their house with pets. Though she sticks by the narrator despite his abuse and murder of Pluto, their cat, the narrator ultimately kills her after she stops him from kill the second black cat that mysteriously appears in their life.
Who is the protagonist of the story The Black Cat?
In The Black Cat, the protagonist is
the narrator
, and he is certainly not a good guy or a hero. In fact, he is quite the opposite, as he ends up being abusive both to his wife and his pets when he is drunk (which is often), and he ends up killing both his favorite cat and his wife in rather gruesome ways.
Where does the falling action or the place in the story where a character faces the consequences of his or her decision?
The falling action occurs
immediately after the climax
and details the consequences — good or bad — that the characters must deal with after the turning point of events. It leads up to the resolution and sets the stage for the final chapter of the story.
How does the climax of the story The Black Cat reflect the narrator’s psyche discuss?
In the story’s rising action, the narrator becomes increasingly unstable and mistreats his wife and their many pets. He cites alcoholism as the reason for his cruel and bizarre behavior. …
This final moment of doom, where his guilt is fully exposed and he swoons in terror and admission
, is the true climax of the story.
Where does the falling action or the place in the story where a character?
Falling action occurs
right after the climax
, when the main problem of the story resolves. It is one of the elements of the plot of the story, the other elements being exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution. Falling action wraps up the narrative, resolves its loose ends, and leads toward the closure.
What does alcohol symbolize in the Black Cat?
Alcohol: While the narrator begins to view the black cat as an outward manifestation of everything the narrator views as evil and unholy, blaming the animal for all his woes, it is his
addiction to drinking
, more than anything else, that seems to be the true reason for the narrator’s mental decline.
On what does the narrator blame his behavior in the black cat?
Over the course of the story, the narrator provides several reasons for his various behaviors. But mostly he seems to be blaming the cat (or cats) for all his problems. According the narrator, it’s
the cat’s fault that the domestic scene of the story ultimately turned so foul
.
What image does the narrator see on the wall behind his bed?
On the wall is the
slightly raised image of a “gigantic cat” with a rope around its neck
(11). Since he left the cat hanging all day and all night, he figures one of the neighbors cut it down and then threw it through his window to wake him up. Somehow it stuck in the plaster of the wall.
What happened when the narrator tapped on the brick?
What happened when the narrator tapped on the brick?
The bricks fell down and revealed the corpse and he had seen the black cat sitting on the corpses head
.
Why does the narrator raise an AXE to the new cat?
Because the cat almost made him trip, and continuously follows him around. What made the man so angry that he raised an axe to the new cat? …
He was more concerned with the fact that the cat was finally gone
. We can infer that he is a mad man.
What was the punishment for killing his wife in the Black Cat?
In “The Black Cat,” it is heavily implied that the narrator has been condemned
to death
as punishment for killing his wife and that he will be executed on the following day.
What crime did the narrator commit in the Tell-Tale Heart?
Throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the reader is left to wonder whether or not the narrator is sane when he commits
the murder of the old man
.
What is the role of the narrator in the Tell Tale Heart?
The narrator of the story is
a madman that is disturbed by his belief that the old man has an evil eye
. … The narrator’s guilt over killing the old man forces him to believe that he hears the dead man’s heart beating.
What does Poe do to reveal character in the story The Black Cat?
Poe reveals character mostly via
direct characterization of the narrator
. … The narrator directly names his “fiendish malevolence” on the night when he cut out his cat’s eye. He also names the “spirit of perverseness” that consumes his person. All of this is direct characterization.
Who is the antagonist in the story The Black Cat?
The antagonist is
Pluto
. Pluto who is the narrators first cat, is the antagonist because he cause, his anger. After the narrator killed Pluto and he got a new cat, the guilt of Pluto led him to try and kill the new cat, but instead he killed his wife.
What do we learn about the narrator from this introduction?
What do we learn about the narrator from this introduction?
He is calm and logical. He is troubled by something. He is often at his home.
What is the mood of The Black Cat?
The mood of The Black Cat is
digusted and shocked
. The narrator loves animals and is fond of them. Over time, the Narrator begins to feel resentment towards his pets and even his Wife. One day his anger and hatred builds up and he does something mad.
What is the main conflict in the Black Cat?
The conflict in the story is
an internal, person versus self conflict
. The narrator attempts to avoid harming the second black cat, but he “soon found a dislike to it arising within (him)…
What is the setting of the story The Black Cat?
Setting The story opens in the cell of a prisoner the day before he is to be executed by hanging. … The events in his tale are set
at his home and in a tavern
. Although these events take place over several years, the recounting of these events in writing takes place on a single day in the narrator’s prison cell.
What did he do with the body in the black cat?
So, he
hides his wife’s body in the walls of the home itself
, and that is where it is discovered later on in the tale.
What happened the night he hung Pluto was a coincidence?
What happened the night he hung Pluto? Was this a coincidence?
The night the narrator hanged Pluto the narrator’s house burned down
.
What does the eye symbolize in the Black Cat?
The eyes can symbolize
judgment, persecution, and the action of being observed
. Eyes are often described as the window to the soul, and in this story,…
