The symbolism of the story The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe is something that we all can relate highly too. For example in this story the man is very kind hearted and caring at first, then things take a turn and the man shows a more violent and dreadful side, which everyone can relate to because though we mostly choose to show our kind, loving sides, we still have this capability to be violent and deceiving. In this story the man goes from kind and loving towards his favorite cat, Pluto, to hateful towards everyone, even his wife. He especially showed the most awful actions towards the cat. He gouged out one of his eyes out and then ended hanging it. Though, after all those things that black cat seemed to haunt him. Everywhere he went seemed to remind him of Pluto. The symbolism of the first cat in this story, the second cat, and the white spot on the second cat shows and expanding capability evil can have in people.
Though the entire story is filled with things illustrating symbolism, the most important symbol of this story is illustrated by the first cat Pluto. This is because Pluto, which also is the name of the god of the underworld, was first to show the evil in the man. Though, as the man started out loving the cat dearly, as his attitude changed his love for the cat started to change rapidly. The cat changed from following the man’s every step to avoiding his every encounter with him. This frustrated the man, to see that his cat even noticed his evil becoming when he avoided him, so the man gouged out his eye so it couldn’t see the clear indication of the man’s evil heart. This only made the cat avoid him more and then one day the man couldn’t take it anymore so he hung it with a noose to a tree showing the man wasn’t proud of showing his evil side and he couldn’t take that the cat he had once adored and loved was now the isolated victim of his unruly actions.
Soon after that the man’s house burnt down and only one wall remained standing. When they viewed what was left of the house the wall that remained standing had a shadow figure of a cat with a noose around its neck on it, and this was the beginning of the first cat, symbolism of evil, haunting the man. One night after his house burnt down he noticed another black cat and the only thing to really show that it wasn’t Pluto was this white patch on its chest. This new black cat followed him home and wouldn’t leave him alone. This black cat symbolized the guilt the man carried with him because of the killing of his first cat. His wife fell in love with the cat and so she decided to keep it. Every night this cat would sit on the man’s chest as if to physically show the guilt of the man sitting on his chest constantly.
The second black cat resembled the first one in every way and the man seemed to think about it all the time. The only way the man knew that this in fact was definitely not the first cat was by the white spot on its breast. Though, as everything else in this story, it too seemed to symbolize something as well. This white spot was ironically, also in the shape as a noose. All of these things only reminded the man even more of the innocence of his first cat, his evil actions of his when he killed it, and the guilt the man carried on his chest everyday of his life.
Those are the three most important symbols of this entire story because they are repeatedly expressed throughout the entire story. Pluto is the first symbolizing of the man’s evil heart and dreadful deeds. The second cat shows just how much the guilt took over the man’s life from the day he met it to the moment the cat exposed the man to the cops when he killed his wife. Then finally the white spot on the second cat’s chest to remind and also punish the man of the evil he had did previously to the first white cat. All of these slowly helped the man pursue into madness as his evil tasks took over everything and every action the man made, and this story illustrated his path into insanity in detail.
Basically in every aspect of this story by Edgar Allan Poe, it illustrated that if you feed or enable your darker side of you to grow stronger than your better side, the resultant – more often than not, being inexcusable - will come back to haunt you. Which will only then, force you to see that, though it might be harder to do well, one would rather not experience the tiresome and revolving consequences of choosing the worse, more easier routes.
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