"Black Cat", "Tell-Tale Heart"

Paper Summary:

The paper is an analysis of two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe: "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart". More specifically, the paper discusses various psychological, religious, and literary analyses of the stories. The paper concludes that, over a century later, literary scholars are still trying to decipher the meaning of these stories.

From the Paper:

"Over the century, numerous literary scholars have tried to decipher "The Black Cat's narrator's state of mind and why he acts as he does. Critics have offered many varied suggestions for his behavior from vanity to trauma from childhood memories regarding effeminate qualities (Piacentino) Stark (255) notes that the protagonist's "baiting language" has encouraged a number of theories on the story's "natural causes and effects," especially with psychological examinations of the narrator and author. No sufficient clear cause for murdering the cat may be found in the text. In other words, adds Stark, by describing a murder that is impossible to sufficiently explain, Poe placed before the world existing controversies in both "scientific and religious thought and ironically upheld the mysterious nature of the human will in a time dominated by intellectual rationalism"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Benfey, Christopher. "Poe and the Unreadable: 'The Black Cat' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' Gale Research [electronic source]
• Chua, John. "Exploring Short Stories." Gale Research, 1998. [electronic source]
• Gargano, J.W. (1963) "The Question of Poe's Narrators." College English, 25(3):177-181.
• Howarth, William. Poe's Tales. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971
• May, Charles E. Edgar A. Poe: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1991.

More papers on "Black Cat", "Tell-Tale Heart":

• Analytical Essay # 122838 : "Three Stories by Edgar Allan Poe"
• Term Paper # 75028 : "Edgar Allen Poe"
• Comparison Essay # 115036 : "Doom and Burial in Poe's Work"

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