The Black Cat is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe that was first published on August 19, 1843, in the edition of The Saturday Evening Post. The story is a prime example of the genre of Dark Romanticism or Gothic literature that emanated as a response to American Transcendentalism. Just like Transcendentalists, Dark Romanticists too considered intuitions over logic and emphasized human emotions and imagination. However, while transcendentalists showed a sense of optimism and goodness in nature, Dark Romanticists emphasized human fallibility. Works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better.
The main theme of Poe’s story is ‘Guilt.’ The Black Cat is often compared with Poe’s other story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ In both these stories, a murderer carefully conceals his crime and believes himself unassailable, but eventually breaks down and reveals himself, impelled by a nagging reminder of his guilt. In The Black Cat, the narrator’s guilt brings the black cat back from the dead to haunt him. The cat represents his guilt. As the narrator feels more guilty, the cat becomes more active. Another important theme is the issue of sanity versus insanity. The narrator was aware of his fall. The story illustrates best the capacity of the human mind to observe its own deterioration and the ability of the mind to comment upon its own destruction without being able to objectively halt that deterioration. The story is that of Perversion and its effect. Poe highlights the probable ill effects of Alcoholism through this story. Another theme of the story is superstitions and supernatural beliefs. The title The Black Cat itself suggests superstitious elements. It is based on the superstition that a black cat brings bad luck.
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