Abnormal Madness

At the beginning of the story, the narrator makes the writing out to be “plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events” (p. 1495). As the story progresses, the reader finds out that this is clearly not at all the case. The events within the text of this account are unmistakably the ramblings of a madman who cannot seem to control his actions and keeps drifting deeper and deeper into insanity. In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator begins to defend himself by saying that he is not mad. This defini

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He finds the cat one morning and he “slipped a noose around its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree” (p.

There are many oddities in this story that can only be explained by abnormal psychology. The story gives the sense that this cat is there to torment him and to drive him even more insane than he already is. Just from seeing what is obvious about the narrator and not even reading deeper into his mindset, the reader can gather that the man is probably not a reliable source for correct information. He also mentions in the first part of the story that his “My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions” (p. tely seems like he is trying to reassure himself more than the reader of his state of mind. He contradicts himself once again in talking about his cat, Pluto. After he watches the cat roam around for a while with only one eye and constantly run from him, the madness sets in again and he cannot control himself. One day, he and his wife are going in to the cellar for an errand and the cat almost makes him fall down the stairs. It burns down to the ground all except one wall “which stood about the middle of the house” (p.

After he kills Pluto, he seems to get more and more maddened. In the story, the narrator tries to make it seem like he has remorse for doing this horrible thing to his beloved pet. Instead, he tries to rationalize how it got there and gets very paranoid that someone knows what he did. This action basically solidifies his madness in general.

Common topics in this essay:
Black Cat, Allen Poe, story narrator, abnormal psychology, edgar allen poe, black cat, ALLEN POE, loves cat, story progresses, mind reader, narrators mind, cat wife, wife trying, throughout story,

Approximate Word count = 1132
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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