Comparing The Black Cat and The Cask of Amontillado Essay

Comparative Analysis on Poes Stories

Edgar Allan Poe very effectively uses symbolism in his stories to convey a deeper meaning. Two of his stories, THE BLACK CAT and CASK OF AMONTILLADO have a common theme of premeditated murder. The Black Cat is a story about an insane man who commits the murder of a cat and his wife under the influence of alcohol. The murders take place in the cellar of his house at night when the narrator is drunk. In THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO, the narrator, Montresor decides to murder Fortunato for the insult upon him. He buries Fortunato alive in the vaults of his mansion. Fortunate would never have predicted his own death due to the veil of friendship that Montresor had put up to create an illusion of cordiality. This essay focuses on the symbolism used by Edgar Allan Poe in his stories.

In THE BLACK CAT, the theme is premeditated murder and uxoricide. The narrator is insane and unreliable. It is an autobiography and a retrospective narrative from a jail cell. A theme of uxoricide has been chosen because since childhood, he has had traumatic experiences concerning the women in his life. His mother died when he was a young boy and shortly after his marriage his wife died. He was permanently scarred by this ill-fortune and this is reflected in his writing. Whenever women are mentioned in his stories, either they have a very brief and impersonal role or they are murdered (as seen in THE BLACK CAT). This story can be classified under the sub-genre of horror Gothicism because the story confronts the principle character, the black cat and his wife, with gross physical violence, explicitly shattering the assumed norms of everyday life. The narrator gorges out the eye of his beloved cat, later he hangs it to the branch of a tree to die and he buries an axe in the brain of his wife and murders her. The color of its cat- black and its name- Pluto are both very symbolic. They add to the Gothic elements of the story. The color black is associated with evil and Pluto is a synonym for Satan himself. Macabre descriptions and bone-chilling thoughts make THE BLACK CAT one of Poes most horrifying tales.

Symbolism is an essential aspect of all of Poes stories. In the former part of this story, it is said that the narrator was loving and caring since childhood. He then gets addicted to alcohol and he changes for the worse. He subjects his favorite pets and his wife to violence. This symbolizes the victory of evil over good, an essential aspect of Dark Romanticism. This goes back to the belief of Maieutics, where truth, most often evil, is latent in the mind of every human being at birth. Poe believed there was one fatal flaw or hamartia in every human being- their ability to succumb to evil. This symbolism of evil over good in this story shows Poes negative, disturbed mindset. There are two cats mentioned in THE BLACK CAT- one being Pluto and the other, a black one with a large, white patch on its breast. Popular belief suggests that the second cat mentioned in the story was just a hallucination. The second cat only symbolizes Poes alcoholism. The murder of his wife is the last negative deed that he does before finally burying his habit of alcohol. More evidence that his wifes murder was premeditated is in his words:

--and thus for one night at least, since its introduction into the house, I soundly and tranquilly slept; aye, slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul!

The storys subject is his strong denouncement of alcohol. As he walls up his wife in the cellar wall, the second cat gets walled up too. This symbolizes the final burial of his alcoholic habit. He says he breathed as a free man for the next few days. He says the tormentor, his alcoholism, had fled forever. There is no mention of alcohol or drunkenness in his description of the days following the murder.

At the end of the story, it is said that the cat screams out through the wall and this causes the narrators arrest and eventual death sentence. sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman.

This suggests that he went back to alcoholism. The narrators hubris was his habit of alcoholism. Some unknown, final deed under the influence of alcohol caused his ultimate downfall.

In the second tale, THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO, the theme is of revenge and betrayal. The narrator is first person and he is unreliable because he says the motive of the murder is his insult by Fortunato but the insult remains a mystery. His tone throughout the narration is calm and emotionless. He is a sane focalizer which makes him all the more mysterious and scary. Montresor is deceitful as he pretends to be Fortunatos friend right till the end where he betrays him and walls him up alive. Montresor is also extremely intelligent. To ensure a watertight alibi, he tells his servants to stay home as he had to leave the city and would only be back the next morning. This ensured that they all left the house to make merry in the pre-Lenten Carnival.

The narrator tries to justify his decision of murdering Fortunato by including many multi-cultural elements. Fortunato and Luchresi are Italian whereas Montresor is Spanish. The story is based in a Mediterranean city. Amontillado is a Spanish Sherry and Montresors Family Motto is Scottish. The purpose of these multi-cultural aspects of the story is to justify his reaction by saying that anybody else would do the same as him too.

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO has a certain meaning at a literal level but an entirely different, deeper meaning at a sub-textual level. At a literal level, the story is only a thrilling encounter of murder. But at a symbolic level, THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO has a more evolved meaning. The story is a direct reference to the last part of Christs life. The long walk which Fortunato and Montresor take together is a biblical allusion of Jesus walk to Calvary where he was crucified and killed. Fortunato too gets bound and killed at the end of that long walk. Just like Christ needed support from others during his walk up Mount Sinai, Fortunato was also weak and required the support of Montresor to keep going. The flambeau that Montresor holds is symbolic of the light of Christ. The centrality of wine in the story is also symbolic of a Church ritual. Fortunatos cap with bells on it is also very symbolic of his mood and mental state. In the beginning, the bells jingled fervently as he walked. He was excited about being able to see a cask of Amontillado. He was a connoisseur of wine, and the prospect of actually tasting Amontillado made him very happy. The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells upon his cap jingled as he strode.

As fortunato continue walking into the vaults, his health declines. And the bells jingle is more subdued.

"Drink," I said, presenting him the wine.

He raised it to his lips with a leer. He paused and nodded to me familiarly, while his bells jingled.

Towards the end, when Fortunato is almost completely walled up, there is a feeble jingling of the bells before they stop completely, just like the heart of Fortunato on his death.

Even the names of the wine they drink are symbolic. The first is Medoc, reminding the reader of medicine. The second is De Grave, which means the grave. This is the last drink he has before he gets buried alive.

As mentioned earlier, the theme of this tale is revenge. This is similar to the Black Mass. The Black Mass is a magical ceremony and parody of the Catholic Mass that was indulged in ostensibly for the purpose of mocking God and worshipping the devil; a rite that involved human sacrifice, obscenity and sacrilege of horrific proportions. The story has a lot of gothic elements weaved into the plot. The time is between late evening and night, the burial happens in a vault with crypts and tombs. And a surrounding of death is created by the bones lining the vault. Surprisingly, there is no element of the supernatural in this tale. The message being conveyed here is to not be scared of the supernatural, but of humans, who are much more dangerous.

An interesting aspect of this story is the possibility of Fortunato not actually existing. Fortunato could just be Montresors hallucination. This is called the Doppelganger Effect. This occurs due to a shock to the left temporoparietal junction of the brain. Fortunato is possibly just a shadow self of Montresor. He is just a personification of the narrators hostile feelings and thoughts. That is why the words, Rest in peace are intended for both protagonists. Burying Fortunato within the confines of his own Palazzo paints a psychological portrait of repression. The physical act is equivalent to the repression of his despised self, possibly alcoholism, within his unconscious.

After analyzing and comparing these exciting stories by Edgar Allan Poe, it is evident that he was of a disturbed mental state, but an impeccable writer nonetheless. The symbolism in his stories is used very effectively to convey in each of his stories, a deeper meaning to make the plot more interesting. This ability is what makes Poe such a celebrated writer.