The Black Cat
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Average rating3.8
"The Black Cat" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. It is a study of the psychology of guilt, often paired in analysis with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". In both, 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.
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I remember reading a Edgar Allan Poe in high school but don't remember it too much. So this year I want to read his work. I enjoy this so much because it have me thinking about all the different ways of the story. And for it to be so short of a story to have a big message in it. Is so crazy to me.
First time actually reading Poe (rather than listening to it), and I have finally realized what makes Poe so great - the prose. He manages to weave a simple story into something that is only subtly terrifying, through the exploration of the mind of a mad man it becomes even more so.
The way Poe distorts things with subtly, gives the impression of madness. The story would not work from a different perspective, the horror comes from the thoughts of the narrator rather than the events themselves.
“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?”
That's one hell of a way to go insane.
